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Pre-Arrivals / Futures
Click here for our list of 2022 Bordeaux Futures & Vintage Report >
Scroll down to read previous vintage reports.
+ About Pre-Arrivals
It is important for our customers to know that all pre-arrivals are stock that we have purchased and committed to. We do not offer pre-arrival wines that we cannot supply.
Items marked as “Pre-Arrival” or “FUTURE” - these items are not In Stock and you will be contacted once they have arrived to arrange shipping. These items are non-cancelable and payment is a treated as a non-refundable deposit.
+ About En Primeur/Purchasing Futures
When you buy 'En Primeur', the wine is still in barrel evolving into a fine wine. This is prior to bottling. It is a purchase in advance of the goods being ready for delivery. Châteaux aim to pre-sell a certain proportion of their production while the wine is still maturing in barrel, around eighteen months before it will be bottled and delivered. This helps their cash flow and allows them to plan for developing and maintaining their vineyards and wineries. In return, En Primeur prices are set at levels that, in the long term, typically reward the early purchasers. This has somewhat changed in recent years as the world economy and the dramatic increases in prices has affected the Bordeaux wine market. However; the principle still holds relatively true.
The first sales of Bordeaux En Primeur start in the spring immediately following the vintage’s harvest, just after merchants, including GVWM, and the wine press have spent a frantic week tasting hundreds of wines. The wines we taste are ‘cask samples’, taken from barrels in which the wines are still maturing. In most cases these samples will be composed of several different barrels so the wine we taste reflects as closely as possible the likely final blend of the finished wine when it is bottled.
Interpreting the structure and quality of these infant wines, and predicting their likely evolution, requires attention, savvy, experience and humility.
Prices and availability are released by each château on the date they deem to be appropriate. Usually, the lower classified wines are released first, followed by the higher rated / classified wines, with the first growths coming towards or at the end of the releases. These wines are offered to the international markets by Bordeaux-based Negociants who receive their allocations from a network of courtiers. The best wines are usually over-subscribed, and are not available to all who seek them. They are released ‘on allocation’ to importers known to, and trusted by, the Negociants. Bordeaux Wine Locators (BWL), our trusted supplier for 100% of our Bordeaux En Primeur and part of our International group of companies, is one of the few National importers in the USA who have specialized in Bordeaux futures for over 30 years and have never failed to deliver.
+ 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 years of experience in this 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.
GVWM has been sourcing and managing client En Primeur purchases since 2011 very successfully and has always delivered client orders. We have vast experience due to both our and Andy Lench of BWL's extended time working with Bordeaux and successive En Primeur campaigns for over 30 years.
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. We buy the wines and then sell them to you we do not sell wines without having first purchased them from one of our regular and trusted suppliers
+ A Word of Caution
If you are being offered a top class Bordeaux and the price is well below other retailers so that it looks to be “too good to be true,” then more than likely it is! Early in 2016 there was a lot of publicity regarding a well known wine retailer that filed bankruptcy to the tune of over 70 Million dollars. While we cannot speak for this company or its policies, it is vitally important for you to know that we do not sell any wine before we own it. Therefore you can rest assured that the wine futures you are buying from us have been purchased and paid for.
