(WineSpectator) - The strong U.S. dollar means 2014 Bordeaux futures cost less, but most consumers aren't buying.

Bordeaux wineries hoped this would be the en primeurs campaign to woo back Americans. The potential quality of the vintage on sale, 2014, is the best in four years. And while most of the château owners who have released their futures so far have raised prices over last year's, U.S. stores are offering the 2014s for less than recent vintages, thanks to a strong dollar and a weak euro.

But after more than two weeks of releases, leading retailers tell Wine Spectator they are seeing lukewarm sales."There is far more interest in 2014 than in '11, '12 and '13 put together, but overall it is a very quiet campaign,” said Ralph Sands, senior wine specialist at California's K&L Wine Merchants.

Until recently, futures offered wine lovers the best option for getting their hands on allocations of top Bordeauxs at a decent price. Whether they planned to drink the wine someday or sell it, they could pay a lower price for the future than they would for the wine at retail. Passing on the futures might make it difficult to secure the wine later.

Those days are gone. “Definitely not true any longer," said Sands. "Starting with 2010, you can still buy almost every famous wine five years later. There are large stocks in Bordeaux unsold, [except for] the minuscule-production wines.”

Barbara Hermann, wine buyer for Illinois chain Binny’s Beverage Depot, reports that the U.S. market is flush with moderately aged Bordeaux, ready to drink tonight. “There is a lot of wine out in the market from just about every château,” she said. “These past couple of years, I’ve been buying older stock, not too much high-end, but well-reviewed wines from 2000 to 2009 that sell for $20 to $70. We have a lot of customers that love to drink Bordeaux, don't buy futures and don't have a cellar.”

She added that even first-growths are not immune. “You can buy most first-growths from '12 and '13 for under $400 a bottle. The average customer doesn't spend $325 on a bottle of wine and the collector only wants the top wines at the best prices they can find.”

Travel to Bordeaux, and you’ll hear that the first-growths hold golden tickets during futures campaigns, enjoying demand seemingly disconnected from reality checks like price. A barrel sample of Château Haut-Brion's 2014 received a score of 95 to 98 points from Wine Spectator and the futures are selling for about $315 in U.S. stores. But while that price is lower than every bottled vintage of Haut-Brion on the market, retailers report little interest.