Martin Brown / 01 October 2019
Martin Brown from our
Fine Wine Team gives us a
quick explanation of how we sell some
wines before they're even bottled
I've been working on our en primeur
offers for about seven years now and
during that time have learned to look
out for a crude but accurate litmus test
of how well any given offer will sell: once
the near-final version begins circulating, I
listen out for a fellow member of the Fine
Wine Team lamenting that their spouse,
bank manager and/or pet with expensive
tastes in slain poultry is going to kill them.
While Martin is delighted with his en primeur purchases, at home he doesn't always receive a sympathetic ear
Admittedly it's often me. Despite the oft-lofty ideas associated with the term 'fine wine', the team here at your Society are as much punters as they are purveyors and we like seeking out a good buy from our offers every bit as much as fellow members do (unless of course there isn't enough wine to go around – then you, quite rightly, get first dibs!).
We started offering wines en primeur,
while they're still maturing in their
cellars prior to bottling, in the 1970s and
were one of the first to do so. In recent
years, we have had a lot of fun expanding
these offers to include regions and even
countries that are not often offered
en primeur: recent successes include
Madiran, Rioja, South Africa
and Argentina.
While members have responded with
immense enthusiasm, I'm still conscious
that if an alien landed and requested an
explanation of the process (in fairness,
stranger things seem to be happening in
the world) I would not blame them for
being a little bemused by it, particularly
at a non-profit maximising co-op such as
ours that doesn't sell wine for investment.
Find out more here.
En primeur is about much more than that,
though. It's a genuinely fun, if arguably
eccentric, way to secure something special
(as it may sell out later) at first-release
prices. In the event of any oversubscribed
goodies, we sort out the allocations, take
payments, then let you know once the
wines are bottled and have made their
voyage to our Stevenage cellars. It's at
this point you can either leave them in
our Members' Reserves cellars (the vast
majority will need some ageing) or take
delivery yourself, paying duty & VAT on
your initial purchase.
Often members tell me it takes one
special or special-sounding vintage,
grower or occasion (for me it was a
currently-not-of-drinking-age family
member's birth year being offered) that
lights the blue touch paper and gets them
into en primeur. And while it can seem
a complicated process from the outside,
our team is here to help make it as simple
as we possibly can every step of the way.
Depending on the animal and vintage, we
might even be able to help you explain it
to your pet too…
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