A new study encourages wine distributors to look into the future.

Professor of Supply Chain Management Scott Webster and his co-authors share a formula to help make better investments in the alcoholic beverage.

Also known as wine futures, "en primeur" refers to the process of buying wines before they are bottled and released onto the market. Scott Webster, professor of supply chain management and the Bob Herberger Arizona Heritage Chair, and his co-authors support that wine distributors who invest in wine futures could mitigate losses or create gains. In this Forbes article posted on April 23, 2017:

The researchers postulate that by entering the futures market, distributors could improve profits as much as 21 percent. According to researchers, the study was based on “the world’s largest wine distributor that does not invest in wine futures due to lack of knowledge about futures prices and their evolution to bottle prices.