What is en primeur
Primeur for the first time
En primeur is a new way to buy and enjoy wine
What is en primeur?
Where do you usually buy your wine?
It is often purchased at retail stores such as wine specialty stores, supermarkets, and the Internet.
The "en primeur" introduced here is a way to buy wine, but it is not well known.
Easy to say, it is to buy wine liquid that is not matured in the futures of wine. And it will be about 2 years before you receive it as a product.
In the general distribution of wine, grapes harvested in autumn are packed in barrels, tanks, and bottles, aged for a certain period of time, and then delivered to customers through local brokers, Japanese trading companies, wholesalers, and retailers. to reach.
"En primeur" is a little different from this way of buying.
Tokuoka Co., Ltd.'s "Primeur" goes on sale when the wine is aging in wooden barrels. En primeur applies to wines made from grapes harvested in the previous fall. After about two years, the wines from each chateau in Bordeaux will be delivered to our cellars and delivered to our customers.
What kind of wine can you buy?
Most of the wines sold as en primeur wines are high-end wines called "chateaux". After a long period of aging, it becomes more flavorful, and its market price tends to rise as it ages.
Have you heard of the wine name Chateau Margaux? It's a wine that often appears in movies and dramas. It is a first-class wine in the Médoc region and one of the primeur wines. Tokuoka Co., Ltd. sells more than 100 brands of en primeur wine, starting with such high-end brands, up to several thousand yen.
En primeur attracting the attention of wine professionals around the world
En primeur wines have not yet been put on the market as commodities, so there is an element of futures trading. Many of the food-related products that we often hear about in futures trading are affected by weather and natural phenomena, such as wheat for grains and dairy products for dairy farming. Wine is also greatly affected by natural phenomena such as the weather.
Wine buyers from Tokuoka Co., Ltd. visit Bordeaux at the beginning of April every year to taste the aging wines. We meet with producers and brokers to see firsthand how the wine is doing and how the market is doing. During the period called “Primeur Week”, wine critics and buyers from all over the world gather in Bordeaux. Wine professionals taste en primeur wines to judge the quality of wines, speculate about future changes in wines, and decide how many to buy.
During the “En primeur week”, each château begins to consider the pricing of en primeur wines for the year. Based on the evaluation of wine critics, the world economic situation, and the expectations of buyers.
Basically, the selling price is determined from the lower ranked wines. In recent years, I have been receiving chateau offers from around the beginning of May. High-end wines check the prices that have been put out first, and carefully set prices while watching the reaction of the market (high! .
After receiving the offer, we will decide the number of purchases for this year based on the information we saw and heard in Bordeaux.
Then, from the end of June to July, when all offers are available, we will decide the price to present to Japanese customers. Since the offer price is denominated in euros, the impact of exchange rates is also a concern.
For Japanese customers to know en primeur
Tokuoka Co., Ltd. holds a "Bordeaux Primeur Wine Tasting Event" around the end of June every year. Originally, aging wine is not allowed to be brought out of the EU, but as a result of long-term business and trust in Bordeaux, Tokuoka Co., Ltd. sponsored the "Bordeaux Primeur Wine Tasting Event" to be held in Japan. it's finished.
In order for our customers to be able to purchase en primeur wines with peace of mind, we hold tasting events just like in Bordeaux, and are devoted to gathering information to help them with their purchases.
buy en primeur wine
three points
-
1. Reliable quality
- Delivering wine by the shortest route
- Purchasing at en primeur allows us to deliver the wine to our customers by the shortest route.
Bordeaux chateau wine has various factors such as name recognition, rarity, price fluctuation in the market, etc., and it is not only needed as an original "drink" but also traded as a market product. It may pass through multiple vendors, multiple owners, and multiple locations before it reaches you.
In that respect, Tokuoka Co., Ltd.'s "primeur" wines are directly stored in our wine cellar after being shipped from the chateau, and the next time they leave our wine cellar is when we deliver the wine to our customers.
-
2. Lowest possible price
- Low price at the beginning of distribution
- As a general rule, price is determined by supply and demand. And if it is targeted for a limited period or limited people, such as early sales or membership system, it is often sold at a preferential price within those restrictions. Tokuoka Co., Ltd.'s "Primeur" is just an early sale. As it is still sleeping in the barrel, it is a "non-commercial wine", so we can offer a "starting price" that is not so affected by the market.
The value and price of a product are determined by the market. I also have to tell you that sometimes things don't go according to theory, and the price won't rise as much as I expected, or it may fall again.
-
3. Dreams and Future
- Time until wine arrives, time after arrival
- When did you first fall in love with wine? Why is a reddish-purple liquid in a long-stemmed wine glass captivating? Some people want to drink wine with their loved ones, some enjoy conversation while drinking wine, some have great expectations for the food that goes with it...
- A certain "you" and en primeur wine
-
"You" gather all kinds of information, such as wine critics and word of mouth in the market, and decide on the wine that "this is it", and "you" become the owner of the wine. In the faraway land of Bordeaux, on a different time axis than "you" in Japan, it slowly matures in barrels for about two years and waits for the day it leaves the brewery. Yes, to start a life with "you".
Bordeaux chateau wine is mostly long-term aging type. The wine will age in the bottle even after it is delivered to you. You can get to know your new partner right away, wait five years, or wait 30 years. A lot must have happened to you, the owner, in 30 years. Wine always nods and smiles gently.In this way, wine has a charm that cannot be expressed in a single word.
en primeur wine of dreams and future
- en primeur is love
- Wine may play a supporting role at milestones in life, such as marriage, building a new house, or the golden wedding of a long-term couple. Instead of buying wine for a milestone, it's also nice to have en primeur wine on hand as if it had been waiting for that moment.
- en primeur is hope
- There are so many people who ask for the wine of their child's birth year. The wine matures with age. The existence of children is hope itself, and parents and adults are watching over them with unconditional love. The surplus love is like personifying the wine of the same age, and watching the growth of my child as if looking into a kaleidoscope. Thinking about the scene where you can enjoy a glass with your grown-up child, what a heartwarming parental feeling.
- en primeur locus
- The founding of the company, the anniversary, the opportunity of various life. Whether it is a passing point or a reaching point, it depends on each person. Gifting long-term aged wine may be one way to express your gratitude to those who have helped you along the way. What year is your “now” that blooms with old stories while drinking wine? If you subtract the year printed on the wine etiquette, the history and achievements of you and your loved ones will shine more.
