Wine Futures In France And Argentina
June 4, 2009
About four years ago, while living in Paris, Lief and I took the train one early July weekend to Bordeaux. In the window of a wine shop in St. Emilion, we noticed a sign: "Primeurs a Vendre!"
The primeurs had arrived.
Wine futures.
A chance to buy your wine ahead. At a substantial savings. An offer too good to pass up.
We bought, that day in St. Emilion, two cases of 2004 Chateau Lynch-Bages primeurs at a cost of 34.50 euro a bottle. Today, these Bordeaux reds sell for 84.50 euro a bottle.
Buying wine futures amounts to buying after the grapes have been harvested and bottled but about a year before the vintage will be available for retail sale. You're helping the winery with its cash flow. They make it worth your while by selling to you for a nice discount off the expected initial retail price--that is, the price at the time you'll eventually (a year later) take delivery of your wine.
In July 2006, we bought, again, Lynch-Bages primeurs for 69.70 a bottle that today sell for 128 euro a bottle.
Lief is right now researching his 2009 buys. No, we're not planning a return trip to St. Emilion. For the past few years, Lief has been buying his annual wine futures through the website 1855.com.
This strategy can be a big help in building a wine cellar.
Unless you live in the United States. 1855.com and other similar resources don't ship to the States. Lief has his orders delivered to Paris, where they're stored in our cave awaiting our eventual return.
Meantime, we've found a way to buy, effectively, 20 years of wine futures. Not primeurs, because these are not French vintages. These are Argentine wines, to be bottled at the vineyard of our friends Tom and Yvonne Phelan in St. Rafael.
Tom and Yvonne made us an irresistible offer to join them in their wine-growing adventure in Mendoza. And they've since extended the invitation to Live and Invest Overseas readers, as well.
This is the kind of opportunity I love. It combines an interesting investment with a chance for an adventure in one of the world's most inviting places to spend time.
Plus 20 years of top-vintage wine delivered to your door (with your own label if you like)! You can read more about La Vida Buena Wine Estates here.
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