This is a short extract from Liv-ex’s recent Bordeaux report, ‘Navigating Bordeaux 2017’. To download the full the report please click here.
Buying En Primeur is an investment. In return for tying up capital and taking on risk, the buyer is left to hope and assume that he or she has secured the best price for the wine. Yet several years of negative returns in recent memory, including a series of negative returns from 2009 to 2011, when the wines were on average cheaper upon physical release, left many questioning the value in buying En Primeur. As the example of the 2006 campaign shows, buying at too high a price can take over a decade to correct.
Returns from recent campaigns have been mostly positive, potentially helping to rebuild confidence in the system. However, collectors buying purely for investment purposes will note that En Primeur purchases have risen in value at a slower rate than the Bordeaux 500 Index on average in all years except for 2012 and 2014. This indicates that, on the whole, investors see a greater rate of return from wines already in the secondary market than from buying En Primeur.
1Liv-ex Mid Price two years after release.
2Liv-ex Mid Price as of 31st January 2018.
3Return is measured against merchant release.
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