If you have been following the wine world for a while, then you’ll likely know that April and May bring with them the Bordeaux En Primeur campaign. The 2026 vintage is said to be of quality, in the style of other vintages ending in 5. For those of you who are not as familiar with the ins and outs of the En Primeur system, we have another blog article that explains this Bordeaux sales tradition.
But what is En Primeur all about ?
En Primeur wine is essentially a futures market – buy a Bordeaux wine in 2026 that comes from the 2025 harvest, which won’t be bottled until 2028, and will be ready to drink in, say, 2045. Sounds complicated? Maybe, but serious enthusiasts all over the world are itching to get started!
The grand Bordeaux estates are gearing up for a week of tasting events next week when journalists, professionals and critics from around the globe descend on the region to judge the quality of the 2025 vintage.
And why should you bother investing in wine in this way, we hear you ask?
The campaign is for those looking for wines that will appreciate in their cellar and in their glass. Purchasing wine from négociants and merchants comes with a number of benefits and, of course, we’re about to dive into reasons. Are you ready?
The En Primeur system offers a long-term investment opportunity. These grand cru wines won’t reach their peak uncorking window for around 20 years, meaning that you can invest the money now and it, along with the wine, will develop over time. And if you don’t believe us, we did some research using the iDealwine Price Estimate and found that 2000 Cheval Blanc has seen a nearly 200% increase on its En Primeur price. And for those of you looking to cash in a bit sooner, we saw that 2015 Château Canon is now worth nearly 80% more than its En Primeur price.
There’s no questioning the provenance of En Primeur wines as once they leave the château’s cellar doors, they have a direct route straight to you. You might be thinking “But iDealwine sells En Primeur wines and it isn’t a producer” and you’d be right. See the thing is, the En Primeur campaign takes place through the Place de Bordeaux – a complex, three-tiered trading system between chateaux (producers), courtiers (brokers), and négociants (merchants and retailers). The négociants buy the wines to sell them to wine enthusiasts without ever touching a bottle as the wines aren’t even bottled yet. Most of the En Primeur wines placed up for sale this spring will be unavailable for at least two more years as they continue to age in their casks.
Purchasing wine in advance of its official release, through a pre-sale programme like En Primeur, typically leads to advantageous pricing. The En Primeur price tends to be the lowest price seen for these wines and the value of them is likely to go up as the years go by. If you don’t believe us, the number speak for themselves! A 2015 Chateau Margaux sold at auction this month March for €1,002, which is over 85% higher than its En Primeur release price of €540.
What makes the 2025 vintage so special?
Word in the vineyard is that the 2025 will be a quality vintage in line with the great vintages ending in a five. We will bring you detailed tasting note and comments as soon as we have tasted the wines. As with every year, we’ll be publishing detailed analysis of each appellations wines on the blog so make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter to receive these guides straight in your inbox.
Benefits of purchasing through iDealwine
Have we convinced you yet? Well, if not, buying En Primeur wines with iDealwine also unlocks several benefits.
- Receive Loyalty Rewards as En Primeur purchases will earn you rebates on iDealwine.com. You will earn a €50 voucher to use on the iDealwine website that can be redeemed when you place an order of €150 or more there.
- Alerts in real-time as each En Primeur wine is released
What is more, you can sign up to receive an alert when a specific wine you have your eye on is released. - Worldwide shipping on release, or storage in our cellars until you’re ready to uncork the bottles
- Tasting notes, critics scores, and updates on each release
We’ll truly be with you every step of the way!
If you’re still on the fence, maybe we can change your mind with this final remark. Think of purchasing En Primeur wines like tidying away some money or chocolate, completely forgetting about it, only to discover it sometime later. That joy on rediscovery will be what it’s like to uncork a bottle bought during the En Primeur campaign when the wine inside has reached its optimum window!
