Taking it Laying Down

Buying wines en primeur is a practice that can frighten even the most dedicated wine lover. It works like this: You choose and pay in advance for wines which are still in cask, paying the final duty and VAT whenever they are bottled and shipped, which is usually about two years after you order them. And, of course, these being red wines from Bordeaux, you can't really drink them for at least a couple of years, as they will be too nervy and tannic. Some of them, you shouldn't drink for at least a decade
It sounds risky, because of course the quality of the wine is dependent on the vintage, and in Bordeaux, the weather at vintage time can be very variable. In some years, wine merchants who arenąt happy with the vintage will only make a very small offer of wines, because they feel the wines will be too dilute and wonąt age.

So, that's the downside. The upside is this: buying en primeur, from a good merchant, is actually the most fun you can have with wines. Buy a few cases, drink them slowly (these aren't everyday wines, after all) and you have the fun and the excitement of seeing the wine change, mature, develop and age, with every bottle offering something new. It's a pure thrill.

One of our favourite en primeur offers is that compiled by Searson's wine merchants, of Monkstown, County Dublin. It offers decent clarets from small chateaux at modest prices all the way up to wallet-busting first growths.
Best of all, Charles and Frank Searson and John Wilson know their business and are supremely helpful, and their offer is accompanied by very helpful notes. Other excellent en primeur offers come from both DWS and James Nicholson in Northern Ireland and Mitchells wine merchants, in Glasthule and Dublin.

Searson's Wine Merchants, Monkstown, Co Dublin tel: (01) 280 0405

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text © John & Sally McKenna
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