Why spend lots of money on wine that isn't even in a bottle? Joe Breen makes the case for en primeur
Walk into any wine shop, head straight for the Bordeaux shelves in the French section and what do you see? You feast your eyes on those distinctive austere bottles with mostly quaint old-fashioned labels and names that glow in the history of wine.
You won't, however, see the first growths, the premier league of the premier league on the shelves. They rarely make a public appearance. There is no need for the likes of Latour, Lafite-Rothschild, Margaux, Haut-Brion and Mouton-Rothschild, the five first growths of Bordeaux, or Cheval Blanc and Ausone, the two first growths of St Emilion, or the almost liquid gold of Sauternes's Chateau d'Yquem, to offer themselves to the great unwashed. Folk with good connections and very deep pockets will have snapped up the strictly limited supplies, regardless of the vintage.
Nor are you likely to see the bulk of the great seconds, wines such as Leoville Barton, Pichon-Longueville, Montrose and the wonderful Chateau Cos d'Estournel, nor indeed anything but a tiny selection of wines from the third, fourth and fifth growth categories as defined by the Bordeaux classification of 1855.
And if they are there, then get ready to draw a deep breath: a bottle of Pauillac's Chateau Lynch Bages, a fifth growth popular in Ireland for sentimental as well as quality reasons, will cost about €96 for the 1996 vintage and a mere €69 for the 1997, now accepted as a relatively poor vintage.
In other words, barring a Lotto win, a gob-smacking streak of luck with the ponies or some such mind-altering windfall, the odds of the average man/woman in the street being able to afford such prices and still buy the groceries are, at best, long. But these wines constitute the Holy Grail of those inclined to vinosity. Once you have the bug, the search is on to find some reasonable way to get your hands on them.
I toyed with the idea of buying wine en primeur (literally means "as new" in French) for many years before taking the plunge in 1999 with two cases of minor Bordeaux from the 1998 vintage, a reasonable year. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. There are, it seems to me, only three really valid reasons for buying ridiculously immature wine in a cask, i.e. without tasting it:
You are loaded down with money and want to make sure that you will have adequate supplies of your favourite.
You are loaded down with money and your head has been filled with tall stories of fortunes made by buying what are essentially "futures".
You are not loaded down with money, but can afford just enough to put your name on two or three middle-ranked châteaux with the object of drinking them with delirious abandon when they finally mature in eight to 12 years' time.
I am, you will not be surprised to hear, in the c) category. For an outlay of about €600 this year, I can get either three cases (12 bottles) of minor Bordeaux or two cases of considerably better Bordeaux, perhaps two of the lesser fourths or fifth growths or throw my hat at it and plump for just one case of outstanding wine, perhaps a third growth or a lesser second.
But how do I know it is an outstanding wine? This is where the fun comes in, for some that is.
Each year around March, the Bordeaux producers hold a series of tastings for the trade and the trade press. These folks in the know will be generally aware of the vintage; what the weather was like - was there enough sun or too much? Was there enough rain or too much? Was the harvest too early or too late or just right? Armed with this information they know roughly what to expect. But the skill of the individual winemakers is also critical. In good years of favourable climate, bad wines can be made and the reverse is also true.
So these tastings are critical for the trade. Their reaction also prompts the setting of prices by the producers, many of whom hold off naming the price of their wine until they see both what the market will bear and what the trade and trade press say. The key figure in the latter, to the chagrin of British writers, is the American wine critic, Robert Parker. What he says of the performance of individual chateau can have a huge bearing on how that wine will sell and what it will sell for. The wine magazines also carry clout, as do some newspaper critics.
So like many others I scan them all for information on the vintage. In addition, the two excellent wine dealers from whom I have bought en primeur wine in the past, Searsons of Monkstown, Co Dublin, and Greenacres of Wexford town, both supply me with their detailed impressions of the vintage, what they are offering and what prices they will be charging.
Having done my homework, it was clear that the appellation of the vintage this year was St Estephe and the best of breed there was Chateau Montrose: "Huge colour, marvellous spice and almost unbelievable extraction of fleshy Cabernet fruit, terrific structure and beautiful balance, a truly superb, grandly classic, wine. [Drinking from] 2012-40," said Decanter (www.decanter.com). I mulled over, putting all my euros in that very expensive basket (€950 approx), but chickened out in the end and went with two more moderate choices. Time will tell - that's if I'm still around to find out.
Talk of which brings up one of the key issues of buying en primeur - it really is a young person's game. Though Bordeaux wines generally are maturing a lot quicker than in the past, the best of these wines are big, complex affairs which require time to reveal their true glory. Make sure you give yourself a reasonable chance to be the one to discover it.
The other major offshoot of buying en primeur is that you are building up a wine cellar and a quality one at that.
But it is the economics of en primeur that is the lure for most. For the producer, the merchant and those in between, it is money in the bank for wine still in cask. And for you? Just look at the price of the aforementioned Lynch Bages. In the Searsons list a case of the 2003 Lynch Bages will cost €480, i.e. €40 a bottle. This is a mere snip compared to the first growths, which cost between €1,400 and €1,800 for six bottles only. And €40 a bottle is clearly a good price when compared to €96, the current retail price of the 1996 vintage.
But there are other costs. For your €480 you have reserved the 12 bottles of wine. Searsons recommends allowing about €45 a case to cover the cost of transport from France, warehousing for up to six months and excise duty. On top of this, 21 per cent VAT is charged on the total of these costs and the original value of the wine. Many merchants also offer storage facilities while your wine matures. Searsons, for example, cites €10 per case per year, plus an insurance charge of 2 per cent of the cost of the wines. So it all begins to add up. These charges apply when you go to pick up your wines which, typically are available about three to four years after the vintage.
However, don't forget that if you have chosen wisely, both the wine and the vintage, then your wine is clocking up in value as well. For amateurs like myself, who seek only to drink very fine wine at reasonable prices, the pain of the initial investment is long gone and the charges faced when picking up the wines are literally a small price to be paid when such riches are almost in hand.
Is there potentially a serious downside to en primeur? Yes. Money unwisely invested in a poor year or an underperforming wine, or - and this can be quite serious - with a dodgy merchant, can lead to heartache. And even if none of that happens, there is no guarantee that when you get hold of your wine it will not be selling at your wineshop for some relatively paltry sum or that it will not be "corked". That's the risk you take. But it's the same with any gamble.
• Aside from Searsons, Monkstown, Co Dublin (01-2800405) and Greenacres, North Main Street, Wexford (053-22975; www.greenacres.ie), there are many other sources of en primeur wines. And Bordeaux is notthe only wine available; for instance, Berry Brothers & Rudd (Harry St, Dublin, 01-6773444; www.bbr.ie) has an en primeur Burgundy list
MARY DOWEY'S BOTTLES OF THE WEEK
DRINK UP OR LAY DOWN ... You don't have to part with serious sums of money, or indeed have a proper cellar, to enjoy the fun of keeping wines for a while to see how they develop. Just be sure to stash the bottles on their sides, somewhere cool, dark and free from vibrations. Although both of these wines already taste delicious, I think there's every likelihood that both will grow more complex and even more alluring if carefully cellared for two to three years. The beauty of buying by the case is that you can savour one bottle right away, then track the progress of the others at satisfying intervals.
Howard Park Riesling, Western Australia 2001. One of the longest-living of all white wines, Riesling is a brilliant cellar candidate. And at last there's a growing recognition that Australia produces some stunning examples. Here is one. Classic Riesling character already wafts out in its aromas of petrol and ripe pears; then gloriously intense, lively flavours of pineapple and citrus dance across the palate, ebbing slowly. A dazzling aperitif, a versatile Asian food or seafood partner ... and it will grow even richer over time. From James Nicholson, www.jnwine.com, €16.95 if you buy a case of 12 bottles.
Les Mal-Aimés, Vin de Table Francais, Pierre Cros NV. Vin de table used to signify dire plonk, but now some ambitious producers welcome the freedom this category affords to break regional rules and create exciting wine. In this smoky, heady red, Minervois grower Pierre Cros has mixed four neglected grape varieties - Piquepoul Noir, Alicante, Aramon and Carignan. Made from the fruit of old vines in 2001, this is a super wine - fleshy and opulent without being overdone. See its black fruit and chocolate notes turn savoury with time. From Louis Albrouze, Upper Leeson St, www.louisalbrouze.com, €16.95; free delivery for case orders (12 bottles minimum); also Red Island, Skerries.