And they’re off! Bordeaux en primeur campaign starts

This year’s Bordeaux en primeur season has officially started with the release of the first chateaux, but coming as it does before most critics have had a chance to write up their notes from last week’s tasting, these early releases may well be all about the price. 

It’s worth noting that, as predicted, the releases this year come nearly a full week earlier than last year – Château Batailley was the first out of the gate last year and is again the first to be released (albeit a week earlier than last year’s release on 29 April), at £300 per case of 12. As Liv-ex noted, it was only 7.4% down on the 2023 release price (which was the lowest release price in euros since 2014) and now sits above the  2019 and 2020 already in bottle, and 13.2% above the market price of the 2021 vintage. As such, “this price might not ignite the campaign,” Liv-ex noted.

This was followed today with the release of  Château Pontet Canet – another of the symbolically significant early releases –  at €50 ex-chateau or €60 ex-negociant, which will means it is being offered at a recommended ex-London retail price of £720 per case of 12. This makes it on a decrease of 9% on the 2023 vintage release price, or 33% on the 2022 – however it should be noted that yields of the 2023 vintage were down 35%, which may in turn boost demand for the 2024 at the new release price, even if it is  one of the more expensive vintages currently on the market according to Liv-ex.

However, Bordeaux Index called it a “clear highlight in Pauillac” at last week’s tasting, and cited Jane Anson’s assessment of the wine as “one of the successes of the vintage”, calling it “beautifully measured” with “a finessed, slim-style of Pauillac with plenty of ageing potential and quiet confidence”.

Also hitting the market today was Château Bélair-Monange in Saint Émilion , which has been released at €117.6 per bottle in France – equivalent to around £1,207 per case of 12 (iincluding VAT). It is being offered ex-London at £1,060 for a case of 12, which represents a decrease of around 10.2% on the 2023’s ex-London release price.

“At this price, it comes in as one of the most expensive vintages on the market,” Liv-ex noted – requiring it to be rated “exceptionally highly” to offer value to consumers.

Timing

And therein lies the crux, as we often said before. Pricing is key. As the Stephen Browett, chairman of Farr Vintners wrote in an email to customers this week, ” the market is terrible. Unless proprietors want to put their heads in the sand (it’s happened before, and maybe some will again?) we are facing some hugely negative issues in the Bordeaux wine trade”.

He argued that the Bordeaux trade itself “really needs these wines to sell” – pointing to the over-stocked nature of most Bordeaux negociants, who continue to be “paying interest to the banks while the value of their inventories declines”, that UK merchants are losing money and are not not in a position to buy stock, while the Chinese market for fine wine “has virtually disappeared” and Trump’s tariffs mean that “US merchants have no idea what taxes they will have to pay when the wines are available for delivery, so are unlikely to be buying”

“This vintage is going to have to be extremely well priced when it is released. If it isn’t, the châteaux will have to keep it.”

Speaking to the drinks business ahead of the releases  Matthew O’Connell, head of investment at Bordeaux Index, noted that while it was obviously a challenging vintage from the perspective of growing conditions, to the credit of the producers, “some good and classical profile claret has been made”, he agreed that the question still centres around pricing.

“If the wines can offer meaningful discounts to all existing vintages in the market, then collectors may indeed find the proposition quite compelling for medium term cellaring,” he said. “Recent Bordeaux en primeur campaigns have very much seen marginal discounts (if at all) to market pricing of adjacent vintages and that approach would be unlikely to drive success here.”

There have been some “encouraging noises” around pricing, he noted, “although we will need to see whether the required level of pricing and the underlying market dynamics have been fully understood.”

” We would love the campaign to be a success as it could create much-increased engagement with Bordeaux more generally across the remainder of 2025.”

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