En Primeur Bordeaux the Same Procedure as Every Year?

Bordeaux, France, April 7, 2016 (Newswire.com) - ​​The wineries of Bordeaux are presenting their new vintage 2015, as simple as that. Car manufacturers use the Geneva Motor Show or major auto shows worldwide
and the wineries from Bordeaux are going to present their wines directly in their Chateaux.

1.) What is this idea?

The wineries from Bordeaux want to present and sell the new vintage en primeur, that meens like a future in stocks. So they invite wine traders and wine tasters from all over the world to taste the new vintage. But not every wine lover is able to get a ticket to Bordeaux. If that were to happen, probably all wine were drunk an could not be sold anymore. So experts are invited to taste the wines and then tell the world of wine lovers and investment in wines, what they are thinking about.

Robert Parker was arguably the most famous wine taster in the world. He has tasted safely, every day between 100-250 wines, an incredible workload over 25 years. A normal wine lover lobs 4-5 wines to taste, and then every wine tastes similar. Of course, the wines are spat out at the tasting otherwise the "fun" could be over after a few wines.
Ok, the wine world pilgrimage to Bordeaux and is tasting the wines.

2.) What happens afterwards?

The wine specialists take notes about each wine, some wine magazines report their impressions and tasting notes live. Some wine tasters are reluctant, they do not present the analysis, to publish them later. The En Primeur Prices of Bordeaux are depending heavily on the tasting notes from the wine tasters. The Chateaux's in Bordeaux pay very close attention to what the tasters say. If you have ratings, which are exuberant and full of praise, the prices rapidly go upward, are they mediocre, prices stay more moderate. Until 2015 everyone was waiting to the scores from Robert Parker, but not this year!

The probably most recognized wine expert in the world is retired in Feb 2015. This could leave a vacuum and it could be exciting to see who will enter the throne of the pope this year, the year II after Parker. Could it be Neal Martin, Jancis Robinson, Stephen Tanzer, Davis Schildknecht, James Suckling or wine magazins like Wine Spectator, Decanter, Falstaff, Vinum or La Revue de France. It could happen that wine lovers will have a look to other customers in wine blogs like Wineanorak, Wine Doctor, Wine Entusiast Magazin or Cellartracker. May be they trust the Wine-Stocks users.

3.) So let's talk about the year 2 after Parker.

For the secondary market the scores are not as important as for the primary market. Sometimes scores changed and the wine prices react immediately, but other things are more important for the wine auction market. Many wine lovers invest so many thousands of Euros in wines they receive only 1.5 years later.
The "En Primeur Buyers" fund the Wine Merchants and Wineries, but does this investment make sense?
The result is, unfortunately, more mundane literally.

If we have a look to the investigated vintages 2004 - 2011 with the most traded 300 Chateaux from Bordeaux. Only one vintage, the year 2008, got an increased in value by almost 8% after 43 months.
The other vintages made a loss up to 25%. After more than 50 months a few years reached the price they were offered 4 years ago.

From the perspective of a wine valuer, the rule of thumb for the moment is unfortunately:
"The better the vintage is assessed, the less worthwhile, an exposure to an En Primeur campaign".
For wine lovers who want to make sure that they get their wine firsthand and that it is perfectly stored the purchase in a en primeur campaign make sense. But pay attention to the purchase prices!