En Primeur buying guide

The key issue with En Primeur wine is that it is purchased before the wine is bottled.

For those purchasing wine En Primeur it is crucial that they make their purchases from a recognised merchant with long years of experience in this crucial and competitive area of the wine world. Clients need to be certain and confident that their wine will be delivered when released some 2 years after paying for the wines.

As stated elsewhere, GVWM has been sourcing and managing client En Primeur purchases since 1999 very successfully and has always delivered client orders. We have vast experience due to both our and Andy Lench’s extended time working with Bordeaux and successive En Primeur campaigns.

Therefore, we have very robust and validated procedures to ensure clients have full confidence and safety for their purchases.  Wines purchased En Primeur through GVWM are documented separately to our own stockholdings, with a clear audit trail and certification to identify your ownership.

Once paid for, all wines owned by clients are held in an ‘off balance sheet fixed asset register’ to ensure ownership is established for clients. The wines are moved to a separate account at our 3^rd party warehouse and stored in the Private Reserve Account and each case will have a unique identifier provided from the warehouse and managed by them.

All En Primeur prices are quoted In Bond. UK Duty and VAT will only be charged at the prevailing rates if and when your wines are delivered.

We are a wholesale wine merchant, and our normal minimum order is nine litres (equal to 12 standard 75cl bottles or equivalent). En Primeur wines are only sold as a case of standard bottles at the time of rerlease.

Non-standard formats such as magnums and double magnums are available from many, but not all, châteaux. Increasingly, the Jeroboam format is becoming less available from and increasing number of Chateaux

Format requests for white wines should be made at the time of ordering, for red wines by September. Bottling requests incur a small extra charge, which varies according to the format required.

GVWM will do its best to match all bottling requests. These are, however, subject to confirmation by the individual châteaux. Please let us know if you would like any of your wines bottled in formats different from 750ml and we will be happy to discuss the options with you.

Please discuss any of the above with our advisors by calling us on +44 01732 779 343 or email sales@grandvinwinemerchants.co.uk.