Shopping Share Tweet Wine Investment Benefits En Primeur is the wine markets term for the purchase of wines whilst still in the barrel also referred to as wine futures. This is the earliest opportunity for collectors and wine investors to purchase the chateaux or wineries latest release. This process of the allocation has been carried out in this way for many years, and the chateaux release their wines to the market through their approved negociants passing and discharging responsibility of accounting brokers and merchants on the market. The negociants then sell to middle men, merchants and brokers throughout the world. Often referred to as wine futures because the wine will not be ready for the bottling stage for between 18-24 months from its En Primeur release, some wines are kept in the barrel for longer, some Sauternes as long as 42 months, but a time period of 18-24 months before the bottling is the normal for most top Bordeaux wines. The chateaux will only release a small proportion of the latest vintage through the En Primeur system; they will hold back the majority of stocks for themselves to sell on to the wine market at a later date once the wines are more mature and the price has risen. This system ensure the chateaux an income early on even though it wines may not be ready to drink for 7-12years! The En Primeur system also gives wine investors & collectors the opportunity to acquire the latest vintage at its earliest release, and historically this is also the cheapest way to purchase these wines. Before the chateaux release their wines for sale, they are tasted and rated by recognised critics such as Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson. The critics scores will have a huge effect on the price of the wines it is said that Robert parker Jr could make or break a wine depending on his rating. This not only effects prices at first release, but also many years into the future as wine are rated through out their lives but the barrel rating is very important to the price of a new release. The En Primeur system of trading has its sceptics and critics; many people within the industry want more transparency between the chateaux and the customer. Also the system does give unscrupulous brokers the opportunity to extract money from would be investors and collectors due to the time between the release and delivery as the wine is not in the bottlewine is sold with invoice only, some companies will offer a certificate. If you are considering making a wine investment look for reputable companies that give you full legal title to the wines. However unless the chateaux are prepared to cut ties with their negociants and employ multilingual international sales teams, the En Primeur system shows no signs of being changed. For this reason it is recommended that investors and collectors deal only with reputable brokers and wine merchants with a strong history of dealing with En Primeur.