Bordeaux 2025 Vintage Report

Bordeaux 2025 Vintage Report: Low Yields, High Hopes

The annual en primeur tour around Bordeaux is always an insightful one. Of course, it is a moment to lean in closely and to assess the new vintage, but it is also a useful moment to hear from properties about their feeling of the market and the varied headwinds that they face.

On the wines, these days the Bordelais know better than to overplay their hand, but there were smiles all round. 2025 is an excellent vintage with some extraordinary high points of quality. In terms of the market, every property I spoke with had the belief that this vintage should be one where customers can genuinely get excited. In many cases yields are low and quality is up there with some of the best recent vintages, and prices should offer value.

For me, I found a number of thrilling wines both at the very top level but also at the value end of the spectrum. These are wines I genuinely want to drink, showing the perfect combination of freshness and intensity - this vintage will undoubtedly have a very long drinking window, giving pleasure in their youth and for a long time after that.

 

The Growing Season:

It was the smallest harvest since 1991 for the region, and there are two main reasons for this. The first is the floral initiation, which due to poor weather the previous year, was lower than normal; the second was the long period of dryness and hydric stress during the 2025 growing season, resulting in small berries with a high skin-to-juice ratio.

It was an early season on every front with bud break occurring around the 25th March – a fortnight earlier than the norm. A wet Easter replenished water reserves in the soil, standing the vines in good stead as they headed into a warm growing season. Flowering occurred quickly and evenly under remarkably dry and sunny conditions. June was one of the warmest on record in France and the heat lasted until mid-July where véraison also took place a fortnight earlier than normal. The high temperatures relented towards the second half of July, with just a little supplementary rain which was of benefit for the vines.

A second heatwave began in August which saw 10 days above 35 degrees. However, it is important to note that average night time temperatures were much cooler than in 2022, with a higher diurnal swing making the nights fresh and cool. A timely dose of rain came at the end of August which helped to refresh the berries and the vines.

The white harvest started in the middle of August, and the reds began in early September. It was the earliest ever harvest for many estates.

 

The Wines:

There is a great juxtaposition within the 2025 vintage. It is a vintage of contrast: warm and dry conditions, yet tense and elegant wines. It can be considered a solar year, with a prolonged period of dryness and warmth through the summer months which has led to intense, concentrated and ripe wines. Yet the cooler period in late July, well-timed rains in late August, and a large diurnal swing during the summer months helped to maintain freshness and low pH levels making for wines of poise and elegance with moderate alcohols. The wines have on average around 1 degree lower alcohol compared to their 2022 counterparts.

Another enticing character of the vintage is its aromatic intensity and definition, which brings both charm and immediacy to the wines – there is a vivid energy in many of the wines. Indeed, Noëmie Durantou has called her wines ‘like harmonics, or exceptional purity and intensity’.

I found both Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc hugely compelling in this vintage - Mouton Rothschild, for example, has a full 98% of Cabernet Sauvignon in their final blend. There were a couple of new cellars on display too, and a true highlight from Pauillac was the ever-classic Grand Puy Lacoste - the wine has reached a new level of definition this year.

There were highlights from up and down the left bank, but for me there was a particularly strong showing from Pauillac. The right bank also delivered the goods in this vintage with the top tier of properties finding excellent tension and definition. A true value pick from St-Emilion is Château Laroque, but there are almost too many exciting wines to mention.

Many producers reported that the weight of the berries was low, in some cases less than 1 gram per berry. This resulted in a high skin-to-juice ratio – in many cases, IPT levels (a measure of tannins in the wine) were recorded to be as high as the 2010 vintage. One of the most important improvements in the cellar in the past two decades has been tannin management. While a danger with this vintage could have been slightly drying or brittle tannins, in most cases they feel fine-grained and seamlessly integrated with fruit. Thus, the wines are as seductive as they are powerful. Guillaume Thienpoint of Vieux Château Certan has called this simply ‘un grand millésime’.

Stylistically speaking, the wines from the 2025 vintage have a wonderful sense of contemporary classicism. Contemporary, since these wines have benefited from careful vineyard practice, considered harvest timing, and deft management in the cellar. Yet they are classical, since they deliver intensity and elegance with freshness and poise, all at moderate levels of alcohol – indeed, a few producers drew comparisons to the outstanding 1989 vintage in terms of style.

 

The Market:

In a buoyant market, we could imagine these wines being released at similar prices to the 2022 vintage. However, due to the current situation – both in the wine market itself and the broader economic and socio-political landscape – our expectation is that the wines will be offered at enticing prices for the excellent quality. After a series of less than successful en primeur campaigns in recent years, properties both need and want customers to engage with these new releases. This could turn out to be one of the most exciting moments for Bordeaux, and customers alike, in recent years.

 

Final thoughts:

While comparisons have been made to some of the great recent vintages of Bordeaux, such as 2022, 2020, 2019, 2016 and 2010, the reality is that 2025 has its own signature. With so much investment in the vineyard, and remarkable modern wineries, the quality has never been better at the level of Classed Growths. In 2025 nature has given something wonderful, and careful and considered winemaking has resulted in a vintage with a great ageing capacity, yet also approachability. It is a vintage to pay close attention to in the coming weeks, and we will be on hand to give advice on our picks and the value for money to be found in this campaign.