A complete round-up of everything from the tasting at the Grand Hyatt.
In July, Royal Oak had their En Primeur tasting at the Grand Hyatt and which we covered, and now we’ve followed up with the Hong Kong-based wine distributor and retailer to get the lowdown and to share some select videos.
Jack Cheung of Royal Oak revealed to us that over 300 buyers attended and that sales reached a “few million Hong Kong dollars” over the course of the one day event, with the most popular wines being bought including Chateau Valandraud, Domaine de Chevalier Rouge, Smith Haut Lafitte, Chateau Lascombes and Bad Boy.
Jebsen Fine Wines gives us some tips on what to buy.
Jebsen Fine Wines recommends buying big name wines like Ch. Mouton Rothschild, Ch. Pontet-Canet, Ch. Lynch Bages, Ch. Montrose, Ch. Pichon Baron, Ch. Lascombes or wines that represent excellent value for money such as Ch. Cantemerle, Goulet (by Cos d’Estournel), Les Dames de Montrose, Ch. d’Armailhac and Fleur Cardinale.
En Primeur or “wine futures“, is a method of purchasing wines early while a vintage is still in barrel, offers the customer the opportunity to purchase a particular wine before it is physically available.
Payment is made at an early stage, a year or 18 months prior to the official release of a vintage. A possible advantage of buying wines en primeur is that the wines may be considerably cheaper during the en primeur period than they will be once bottled and released on the market.
Jebsen Fine Wines is a division of Jebsen & Co, a family-owned business of Danish origin established in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1895. The fine wines division started in 1991 and has since become one of the leading independent wine distributors in the region with offices in Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.
Jebsens Fine Wines represent some of the finest wineries and brands from around the world with a portfolio including such icons as Penfolds, Baron Phillippe de Rothschild and champagne Bollinger.
A 2010 barrel tasting from France proves quite a feat.
Saturday saw the biggest ‘En Primeur’ wine event in Hong Kong so far, with eight French wineries bringing unreleased 2010 barrel samples to a gathering of over 100 buyers.
ASC Fine Wines brought in samples of the new vintage were shipped here for local and international wine buyers to sample what might be the most fantastic vintage since 2005, and buy futures in wines they think are worth investing in.
The second part of “Guide To Buying Bordeaux Wine En Primeur” covers the benefits of buying wine en primeur and how to buy.
Why buy en primeur wine?
The main reason to buy wine en primeur is because it is buying wine at the cheapest level. When you buy in advance – let’s say from 12 to 18 months before the wine is bottled – “by subscription” while the wine is still maturing in their barrels, you get it at the best price before it is released to the open market. According to Millesima, you can buy wines at 20% less on average compared to when they are bottled and released.
However if you can get your hands on first growth wines from a leading chateaux of a great vintage, chances are prices will rise quickly by the time the bottled version comes to market. It is not uncommon to see 100% increase in less than a year. Robert Parker has already given the thumbs up for the 2009 vintage from the five First Growth chateaux which is going to make the 2009 vintage very exciting.
The other interesting point is that buying this way also means buying bigger size formats such as double magnums, jeroboams or imperials is possible.
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