Interest in En Primeur has been low in recent years. As the chart above shows, share of En Primeur trade on Liv-ex reached 15% for the 2009 vintage, dipped to 10.9% for the 2010s and then plummeted to 2.6% for the 2011s. Other than a slight uptick for the more accessibly priced 2012 vintage, the news has not been positive since.
Views on the quality of 2015 have been mixed: James Suckling has called it “extremely exciting” and awarded a string of perfect 100-point scores, while others have been less effusive, expressing concerns about the vintage’s consistency. Many scores and opinions are yet to be published.
Today, the first handful of wines were released. Among these was La Couspaude (St. Emilion) at €34 per bottle ex-negociant. This is a 13.3% increase on last year’s release price of €30. However, with a weakened Sterling, the price increase for collectors in the UK is 25%. For US buyers it represents an 18% rise.
The UK has historically been the largest single market for Bordeaux En Primeur. It remains to be seen whether, if other Chateaux follow La Couspaude’s lead, the market can absorb such rises.
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