Fraud alert over Bordeaux wine futures(3)
"If suppliers deliver then obviously that's great" however what has driven my concern is that some suppliers are taking money for and actually confirming orders for wines that have not yet been released by the chateaux."
Reputable merchants would not offer a wine for sale without knowing the price and their allocation. And allocations this year will be at a premium.
"Such is demand in this vintage that it is highly unlikely relative newcomers to the primeur market -- Chinese buyers who have not yet built up established lines of allocations with negociants (merchants), can give such a commitment, especially before the chateaux have even released the prices!" Gleave wrote in an email to AFP.
Merchants from Bordeaux to London to Hong Kong urged consumers to proceed carefully.
"The next few months could easily be used, wittingly or unwittingly, by wine shops all over the world to sell bogus stock," cautioned Staples from London.
"Make sure that the merchant you buy from has been trading en primeur for 10 years at a minimum and will be solvent in 2012-13."
He explained: "New merchants will not have positions' on these wines and they will not be able to fulfill the orders."
Concerns about a possible confidence trick, arising from past experience, are based on offers of the wine for sale, taking customers' money but never delivering the wine.
The 2000 vintage attracted disreputable traders, including two Bordeaux merchants who absconded with more than a million euros, by selling wine en primeurs. No wine was ever purchased or delivered.
Another alleged case comes to trial in Britain this June in which the directors of two wine investment companies have been accused of conspiracy to defraud investors who allegedly paid en primeur for wine that was never received.
Staples told AFP that he had not yet come across any illicit trading of the 2009 vintage in Britain but that he had "been worried that this would raise its ugly head as we get closer to game time' for the fabled 2009s."
Gleave said that "we urge buyers interested in the 2009 Bordeaux to deal exclusively with reputable merchants only."
Prior to the release on the market, "anyone offering top 2009 Bordeaux is a fraud."
