Buying En Primeur

What is En Primeur?

En Primeur is a French wine trade term for wine which is sold as a "future" i.e. prior to being bottled and for delivery at a future date. En primeur wines are usually offered one or two years after the vintage. In the case of Bordeaux, the campaign occurs in the spring following the harvest, whilst Burgundy is offered two years after. These are the two main regions offering wines prior to bottling, however, there are also en primeur campaigns for the top-flight wines of the Rhône, Tuscany, Piemonte and Port.

The wines are then shipped, in the spring or autumn one or two years later, depending on the release policy of the respective regions.

Why buy En Primeur?

• For many wines, and certainly the most sought-after, the en primeur price is usually the best price
• Secure your allocation of wines with limited production quantities
• Purchase in the format you desire, magnums for example
• Provenance - the knowledge that your wine has come from a credible source with a traceable history of its care - of paramount importance in ensuring graceful maturation or if you desire to sell your wine at a future date

How much will I pay?

Purchasing en-primeur, is to purchase excluding duty and VAT. Once the wine arrives in the UK, it will automatically be stored in our bonded warehouse, Vinothèque, in Burton-upon-Trent, where they will be stored and cared for at optimum conditions under the Portfolio Service. Each quarter, you will receive notification of any of your wines that have been shipped to the UK or you can view the status of your reserves in real-time on our website.

Once in the UK, you can elect to pay the prevailing rate of UK duty and VAT and have the wines delivered to you. As an illustration current rates^* for selected styles and formats are:

UK VAT is 17.5% and is levied on both the purchase price and the appropiate duty.

How to order En Primeur?

You may add en primeur wines to your shopping basket just like other wines. They will automatically be placed into a reserves account for you.  En Primeur purchases must be for a full unsplit case. This is normally 12 bottles but varies by wine and bottle size. When searching our website, wines that are available en primeur can be identified by the following graphic:

Your Expression of Interest

In every vintage of note, the best wines experience a high level of demand from keen buyers. The market for top wines is fast moving as buyers seek to secure stocks upon release at the best prices. Châteaux offer their wines through the Place, the network of négoçiants (dealers) in Bordeaux charged with distributing to merchants around the world. Lay & Wheeler is well positioned with good allocations from selected négoçiants with whom it has developed trusted relationships over a number of years.

In order to best meet the requests from its thousands of customers, Lay & Wheeler has put in place an ‘Expression of Interest’ process permitting potential buyers to set out their likely requirements in advance release. Using these provisional ‘shopping lists’, the company can contact customers with prices within hours of wines being released.

An expression of interest is just that – a non-binding statement of the wines the customer may wish to acquire. Equally customers should be aware that Lay & Wheeler may not always be in a position to meet the requirement in full when demand is significantly greater than available supply. Nevertheless the company will prioritise those customers who lodge expressions of interest in order to allocate scarce wines as efficiently as possible.

Terms & Conditions 

Please see Lay & Wheeler's standard terms & conditions of cellarage.

Search current En Primeur wines

• Bordeaux
• Burgundy
• Italy
• Australia
• All Regions

*Correct as at 18/06/2007