The 2025 en primeur campaign appears to have got off to a somewhat haphazard start with a spattering of big name releases but little rhythm thanks to a succession of bank holiday weekends and now a week-long lull.

Nonetheless, some key wines have appeared so far, including Lafleur (newly rebadged as Vin de France), Château Cheval Blanc, Château Pontet-Canet and Château Cos d’Estournel.

More recent releases have included Château Lafite Rothschild and its stable, Château Angélus and Château Palmer, as well as châteaux Branaire-Ducru, Lynch-Bages, Lascombes and Léoville-Barton among others.

First of the firsts

The most notable release of all so far has been first growth, Lafite Rothschild. The wine was rated 97-points by Decanter’s Georgie Hindle, who said it was: ‘A bit more lively, energetic and upfront than Lafite can sometimes be.’

With consistently high scores from other major critics too, there was hope that Lafite – as has been the case in the past – could help keep the campaign on course and set an example with its pricing.

Yields were very small in 2025 (27hl/ha) and quantities are very limited. Berry Bros & Rudd is offering the wine in packs of three for £1,047 (£4,164 per 12x75).

The 2025 is around 16% more expensive than the 2024, but for a much higher quality wine and one that is still much cheaper than many older vintages of Lafite – especially other highly-rated vintages.

Second wine Carruades de Lafite was also released at £432 per three bottles.

A smile on the face of angels

Right Bank grand cru Angélus hit the market on 21 May. Another wine with 97-points from Hindle who wrote: ‘The energy and balance is flawless. Really an elegant, elongated wine with such nuance of flavour. I love this and think they've done a super job – juicy, this brings a smile to your face.’

The wine is being offered for £606 per three bottles or £1,200 per six at BBR. Fine wine marketplace Liv-ex noted that the 2025 was one of the more expensive vintages available and some recent older vintages with equal or higher scores are currently available for less.

And finally, Palmer, which was released on 22 May and is being offered by BBR and other merchants for £1,158 per six bottles (or £585 per three).

Likewise scored 97-points by Hindle – who called it, ‘sturdy, stately, complex’ and ‘compelling’ – it was again noted by Liv-ex as being one at the more expensive end of comparable recent vintages.

Slow and steady

Reaction to many wines has been broadly positive so far. Big hitters such as Cheval Blanc and Lafite have sold well, several merchants said.

Corney & Barrow noted that its exclusives from the Moueix and Mitjaville stables had also found a ready audience.

Speaking to Decanter, one merchant said pricing was ‘sensible’ but also ‘not necessarily at a level where the wine becomes a must buy’.

Nonetheless, they added, buyers recognised ‘this is truly a vintage of excellent quality and a future great’.

This was leading to ‘reasonable’ levels of interest and, ‘significantly more large format bottling requests than normal given this is a vintage where buyers will want to own and drink’.

June offensive

Many of the Bordelais are currently in Asia at the Vinexpo trade show, hence the quiet end to May.

Various insiders, however, have caught wind of a number of big name releases that are lined up for early June.

A select few can be seen below.

Early June releases

1st June: Giscours

2nd June: Pichon Lalande, La Mission Haut-Brion, Lagrange, Pavie

3rd June: Mouton Rothschild, Haut-Bailly, Brane Cantenac

4th June: Cantenac Brown

8th June: Clos Fourtet

9th June: Haut-Brion

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Cheval Blanc 2025 released en primeur

Cheval Blanc 2025 was released in the fledgling Bordeaux en primeur campaign on Monday (11 May), and was offered by UK merchants at around £2,010 per six bottles in bond (IB).

It's among the first big names to emerge in the en primeur campaign for a much-admired Bordeaux 2025 vintage.

Rated 96 points by Decanter’s Georgie Hindle, Cheval Blanc 2025 represents one of the smallest vintages on record at the St-Emilion property – which could be a factor for collectors considering whether or not to purchase en primeur.

UK merchant Farr Vintners said it was the smallest Cheval Blanc vintage since 1961, except for 1991 when the wine wasn’t made.

Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said Cheval Blanc was consequently releasing ‘all produced wine en primeur – Cheval Blanc will not hold back their usual third of production for ageing’.

It said the ex-négociant price on Cheval Blanc 2025 was €336 per bottle, up 20% year-on-year – although last year’s price was the lowest at en primeur since 2008.

Corney & Barrow reported 55,000 bottles of Cheval Blanc 2025 were produced, versus 128,000 in 2023. It added that the 2025 was cheaper than other recent, high-quality vintages, except for 2020.

‘Although the release price falls above our target price range, we believe this high quality wine deserves the attention of followers of the estate.’

Based on recent Decanter analysis of Cheval Blanc back to the 2014 vintage, using Liv-ex Market Price data, the 2025 en primeur offer is below the 11-vintage average price from 2014 to 2014, which was £4,243 (12x75cl IB) at the time of publication.

Early days for the campaign

It remains early days for this year’s Bordeaux en primeur campaign, with only a few wines so far released.

Châteaux must balance a challenging market picture against a highly regarded – yet small – 2025 crop.

Pontet-Canet kicked things off at the end of April and Miles Davis, market expert at Vinum Fine Wines, with offices in the UK and Asia, said this week that the merchant ‘sold a lot more than we thought we would’.

It won’t make or break the merchant’s year, but there are clearly still buyers who enjoy purchasing en primeur, he said.

Geraint Carter, of international merchant Bordeaux Index, said Pontet-Canet sold ‘reasonably well’, although he said the price was still on the high side – dampening the potential for wider interest.

L’Evangile and Fieuzal out of the blocks

Pomerol’s L’Evangile, which is part of Domaines Baron de Rothschild (Lafite), also released its 2025 vintage en primeur this week. Liv-ex said the wine was €96 per bottle ex-négociant, which is flat on last year’s release price.

Decanter’s Hindle rated L’Evangile 2025 at 96pts.

UK merchants offered the wine at around £582 (6x75cl IB), and Farr Vintners said that represents the lowest release price since 2014.

‘This [is] a welcome return to realistic pricing for one of the big names of Pomerol,’ it said.

Switching the focus to Pessac Léognan, Château de Fieuzal 2025 could be a value proposition to watch.

Rated 94pts for Decanter by Bordeaux expert Panos Kakaviatos, Château de Fieuzal 2025 red was offered in the UK at around £140 (6x75cl IB).

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Pontet-Canet and Batailley both have a reputation for releasing early and they duly kick-started this year’s en primeur campaign as Decanter published its full report on the exciting Bordeaux 2025 vintage.

All eyes are on pricing after official en primeur tastings in April drew plenty of admirers, living up to a lofty reputation for years ending in 'five' in Bordeaux.

Bordeaux’s class of 2025 is entering a turbulent economic landscape and a wine market still finding its feet after a prolonged downturn – which is also widely reported to be well-stocked with young Bordeaux vintages.

Pontet-Canet makes debut

At £378 per six bottles in bond (IB) in the UK, Pontet-Canet 2025 was slightly more expensive than last year’s 2024-vintage release, which debuted at £360.

On an ex-négociant basis in Bordeaux, though, Pontet-Canet 2025 was €58 per bottle, according to Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade – slightly under last year’s release at €60.

Pontet-Canet 2025 received 97pts from Decanter’s Bordeaux correspondent, Georgie Hindle – equal to its scores in 2024 and 2023.

Hindle praised the 2025 iteration as ‘structured and fresh with a great promise of long ageing’, and enthused about the wine’s ‘brilliant purity of fruit’.

Shortly after the release, UK merchant Corney & Barrow said Pontet-Canet 2025 was more expensive than the current market price of the well-regarded 2019 vintage and ‘fell well short of our fair value bracket of £224-280 per six [x75cl IB]’. However, it said this biodynamic fifth growth has a loyal following.

On Tuesday (5 May) Thomas Parker MW, of merchant Farr Vintners, said strong appraisal from at least one major critic ‘really gave sales a boost’.

Batailley 2025 price 'lowest since 2014'

Batailley 2025 was rated 96pts by Decanter’s Hindle, who said, ‘I have a real soft spot for this wine and it delivers again with such great quality-to-price ratio.’

Liv-ex quoted a UK release price per 12-bottle case (IB) of £289 for Batailley 2025, which it said was 'the lowest since 2014'.

Many merchants offer en primeur wines in six-bottle cases, albeit other formats are available, too.

Farr Vintners offered Batailley at £144.60 per six-bottle case (IB) and Parker told Decanter on Tuesday (5 May), ‘It was good to see the price come down from last year.

'There was a clear understanding that success in selling this vintage must factor in the current demand for young Bordeaux and global economic and political uncertainty. We therefore offered and sold a decent volume of the wine as a result.’

Moueix wines make debut

Right Bank heavyweights from JP Moueix stable joined these top Left Bank names early this week.

Among the wines to be offered, La Fleur-Pétrus 2025 (95pts) debuted at £725 per six-bottle case (Farr, Bordeaux Index), slightly above last year’s debut price for the 2024 vintage. Bélair-Monange 2025 (96pts) was offered at £530 per six, similar to last year.

‘Gorgeous aromas, such a concoction of freshly picked red and black fruit with rose petals and violet touches,’ wrote Hindle of Bélair-Monange 2025, adding, ‘Another dark horse, not yet fully shining but with excellent potential.’

Laroque: A St-Emilion ‘value pick’ to watch

Château Laroque 2025 represents ‘another great success and value pick’ from this St-Emilion Grand Cru Classé estate, wrote Decanter’s Hindle after tasting the wine en primeur. She gave it 96pts.

UK merchant Lay & Wheeler offered Laroque 2025 for £117 (6x75cl IB) on Tuesday 5 May, also highlighting the value proposition on offer to buyers.

Justerini & Brooks offered similar praise, stating, ‘David Suire's Laroque must rank amongst the best value wines of the right bank. Since his arrival in 2015, critics have heaped praise on his wines, and for the time being they remain relatively affordable (relative to wines with similar scores).’

More releases this week

Other releases this week have included Doisy-Védrines 2025 (94pts) and Coutet 2025 (95pts) from Barsac (Sauternes) at £152 and £168 per 6x75cl IB respectively.

Meanwhile, Thursday 7 May saw debuts for Château Pape Clément 2025 red and also white wine Pape Clément Blanc in Pessac-Léognan.

Hindle rated both wines at 96pts, with the red offered by UK merchants at around £316 and the white wine at £543-£544 (6x75cl IB).

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From the southern Château de Taillan, on the edge of the Bordeaux metropolitan area, to the northernmost Château Noaillac, the distance is about 70km – more than an hour’s drive.

Some estates are close to the estuary, others further inland; some are on gravel, others on clay-limestone or sandy soils. The diversity of terroir is therefore considerable.

In the hot and dry 2025 vintage, vineyards with clay or limestone subsoils had a better chance of avoiding hydric stress, which can shut down the vines, stop photosynthesis, and hinder tannin ripening, resulting in bitter, astringent wines.

Even the rain at the beginning of September did not help much in vineyards on very free-draining sandy or gravel soils, where water drained away quickly.

On clay soils, however, vines were able to retain more water, slightly increasing berry size, lowering concentration, and marginally improving yields, which are extremely low this year.

Some Cru Bourgeois estates harvested as little as 17hl/ha, a level that is not financially sustainable in the long term.

A question of quality

In terms of quality, some estates in St-Estèphe, where clay content is higher, performed particularly well.

With many partially shrivelled berries, strict sorting was key to success. As most Cru Bourgeois estates harvest by machine, much has depended on technical parameters and financial possibilities.

Given the already low yields, sorting was often limited, which in some cases resulted in coarse tannins and cooked fruit.

Surprisingly, despite the hot vintage, alcohol levels are almost universally moderate, barely exceeding 13.5%, due to the vine shutdown and the consequent pause in sugar accumulation.

Overall, as elsewhere in Bordeaux, 2025 was a heterogeneous vintage for Cru Bourgeois estates, with both very successful wines and others that struggled.

The range of scores clearly reflects this.

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from the Crus Bourgeois

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Despite significant summer heat and drought, many producers crafted wines with adequate acidity and moderate alcohol levels, thanks largely to early harvesting decisions and, in many cases, naturally small berries with concentrated acids.

As Antoine Médeville, enologist with the Médoc wine consultant Oenoconseil, explained, the pace of the harvest was unusually rapid.

‘We never picked grapes as early or as quickly as we did this year, starting around 15 August,’ Médeville said.

‘It had to happen quickly, as we were already seeing low acidities and wanted to preserve freshness.

‘In a normal harvest, many of our clients would make three passes in the vineyard, but this time, many only did the harvest in just one quick go.’

Such haste and extremes are rarely ideal, and not all wines found their balance.

A longer, more gradual harvest window generally allows for greater precision. And 2025 cannot match such excellent dry white vintages in Bordeaux as 2014 or 2017.

And yet, concerns about the unusually compressed picking period may be somewhat overstated.

The dry white at Château Margaux, for example, showed strong balance and freshness, suggesting that timely decisions could deliver convincing results even under pressure.

As director Philippe Bascaules observed, such conditions are in fact less problematic for whites than for reds.

‘It is enough to harvest earlier,’ he noted, even if a shorter ripening period is not ideal.

He added that hot, dry conditions are ‘more concerning’ for reds than for whites, remarking: ‘Now I finally understand why Greek dry whites are better than their reds.’

Well-timed picking

This perspective helps explain why, even in a challenging year, well-timed picking preserved freshness and avoided excessive alcohol: key factors behind the vintage’s success.

One of my favourite wines from the Médoc is the Brane-Cantenac blanc, harvested between 20–28 August from vines on cooler clay soils, and a marked improvement over the inaugural 2019, which showed a more overtly varietal profile.

Some readers may wonder whether the late August rains played a role, but most producers say they were not decisive, as many white grapes had already been harvested.

‘The grapes were ready to pick before the rains,’ Médeville stressed.

That said, cooler terroirs, whether due to microclimate or deeper clay and limestone soils, allowed for harvesting into early September.

In these cases, producers such as Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier suggest that waiting slightly longer helped to achieve better ripeness and balance.

Outcomes nevertheless vary. While some wines lean toward either softness or angularity, the stronger examples reconcile freshness with sufficient ripeness.

Winemaking choices also proved critical: Médeville emphasised that lees stirring (bâtonnage) played an important role in not only building texture and mid-palate weight, helping to integrate the vintage’s naturally high acidity, but also for binding oxygen and oxidative compounds, slowing down oxidation.

What's new?

Dry whites are one of the clearest growth stories in Bordeaux right now.

2025 marked the first widespread commercial releases under the new AOC Médoc Blanc designation.

White cuvées such as Baron de Brane, Les Griffons de Pichon Baron, Caillou Blanc de Talbot and De Malleret Blanc will be designated under the new label.

First-ever or expanded white projects have appeared across the region.

Château Meyney produced Bordeaux’s potentially only Blanc de Noir dry whites – 100% Cabernet Sauvignon vinified as white from silt and gravel soils with a 9,000-bottle production.

Ormes de Pez released the first vintage from newly planted Sauvignon and Sémillon inside St-Estèphe (replacing Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon on 4ha).

Château du Tertre introduced the second vintage (but first EP tasting) of its new white wine project, Alba, a blend of Chardonnay and Gros Manseng on sandy soils as a sister wine to its main white wine.

Château Siran made its first dry white in 50 years – a single barrel of Chardonnay and Chenin bottled as Vin de France.

Château La Lagune launched the first vintage of its white wine made from Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc from 3ha of vines grafted in 2023 and a further 2ha grafted last year.

Château Montrose incorporated Marsanne and Roussanne into its blanc for the first time.

Château Léoville Las Cases presented the first vintage of its white white, a project that started in 2019 with the purchase of seven vineyard plots (2.5ha) in the northern Médoc.

It is a blend of 50% Sémillon, 25% Roussanne and 25% Marsanne and will be labelled as a Vin de France.

Its inception co-incided with the arrival of Arnauld Hubert who wrote his thesis on Bordeaux whites for his degree at Bordeaux Sciences Agro, an elite engineering school specialising in agricultural sciences, food, environment and related fields..

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top dry white wines

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Sauternes and Barsac produced a host of pure and luscious sweet wines in 2025.

The Ciron river’s morning mists combined with warm, sunny days and late August/early September rainfall created near-perfect conditions for the spread of rapid and even noble rot; while the clay-limestone and gravel terroirs retained just enough moisture to prevent excessive shrivelling.

The late-August rains refreshed the vines without diluting sugars, and the cool September nights preserved acidity with a window of dry, sunny and windy weather concentrating the grapes towards the end of September and beginning of October.

Château Coutet completed six passes between 17 September and 14 October with homogeneous noble rot each time.

Château Filhot, Château Lamothe Guignard and Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey all noted the ideal mist-and-sun cycles that produced pure, concentrated musts.

The result is wines of remarkable aromatic purity and precision – rich in botrytis-driven notes of quince, apricot, honey and exotic fruit, yet supported by vibrant freshness, refined texture and a saline minerality that gives them lift and ageing potential.

Many estates achieved high residual sugars (140-158 g/l) with excellent acidity and lower pH than in hotter years, producing a classic yet energetic style that sits comfortably between the concentration of 2023 and the harmony of 2015.

Flirting with perfection

Yields in Sauternes are always tiny (25hl/ha is the maximum allowed) but some 2025 crops were wince-inducingly small, such as Château Broustet's 8hl/ha.

Château d'Arche was below average at 11hl/ha but Château Guiraud managed 15hl/ha, and both Château Caillou and Château Doisy-Védrines 14hl/ha.

Pierre Montégut technical director of Château Suduiraut described the 2025 as ‘like 2023 for sugar’ (the 2025 is a very rich 158 g/l), and comparable to the great 2009 and 2010 vintages.

Sandrine Garbay at Château Guiraud (145 g/l residual sugar) said the conditions were ‘great for the vines’ with an ‘early start, no frost and no issues with the weather’.

She added that after the first rain at the end of August and beginning of September, the period from mid-September to mid-October was ‘perfect with humidity in the morning sometimes from rain and then dry in the day’.

This allowed three successful sortings with a ‘high concentration of sugar’ but als, ‘high acidity giving a classic expression not so far from 2023, and from 2015 which was such a perfect vintage’.

What's new

Château d’Yquem: Lorenzo Pasquini officially took over from Pierre Lurton. Pasquini had been estate manager / technical director / operations director since 2020 and was mentored by Lurton who originally recruited him in 2015 for Cheval des Andes. Pierre Lurton remains chairman, focusing on external relations and strategic direction.

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from Sauternes

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St-Emilion delivered wines of striking diversity and terroir transparency.

Limestone and clay-limestone plateau plots – the appellation’s signature soils – produced the most refined, balanced and vibrant expressions.

The slower sugar accumulation leading to wines with naturally higher acidity, refined tannins and lifted aromatics that gave the vintage a classic yet energetic feel.

In contrast, parcels with more gravel influence faced greater water stress, leading to extremely low yields and tighter, more concentrated fruit that required very precise management.

Frédéric Faye, technical director at Château Figeac, detailed the extreme drought after flowering (only 400mm of rain vs 850mm in a normal year), slow sap flow, cold nights and phenolic ripeness arriving before sugar, resulting in intense flavours and classic vinification.

He said: ‘We had 10 days throughout June, July and August over 40 degrees but the nights were cold so the vines could breathe.’

The late-August rains and cool September nights proved decisive everywhere, refreshing the vines and preserving acidity without dilution.

What emerged was a vintage of real personality: floral and mineral-driven, with juicy red and blue fruit, focused structure and a stony finish – less opulent or heavy than 2022, more balanced and drinkable than many recent warm years, yet still serious and age-worthy.

Lifesaving rain after the heat

Heat (and its consequences) is a major theme of the vintage

Nicolas Corpandy, technical director at Château Cheval Blanc, noted that there were 10 days above 35°C and a peak of 41.6°C on 11 August.

But, he added, that the 59mm of rain between 20–31 August, ‘revitalised the vines and freshened up the style’ and helped aromatics, freshness and phenolic maturity.

At Château Quintus, part of the Domaine Clarence Dillon stable, the message was: ‘without the rain at the end of August, we would have produced syrup’.

David Suire, technical director at Château Laroque, highlighted the ‘best possible conditions in the area for this kind of vintage’ on limestone and clay with old vines, noting the terroir ‘shines this year’ and the rain was ‘beneficial for freshness’.

He added; ’the vines really preserved themselves this year, they produced less sugar so less alcohol and had a slow evolution of the aromatics’.

He also noted that many of the previous ‘best vintages’ had much high alcohols: ‘For 25 years at least all outstanding vintages have had higher alcohol than this year which changes the sensation and balance of the wines. It’s possibly a new 2016 but with less alcohol and less firm than 2016.’

He said it was, ‘a vintage that will stay in our memories for a long time’.

Yields (and the lack of them)

Despite the rain, the heat meant grapes were ready for picking early. Nicolas Audebert, technical director at Château Canon and Château Berliquet, noted that his teams were out as early as 28 August.

Château Troplong-Mondot began exactly a month later – 28 September – but still a record early start, while Château Ausone started on 2 September.

Something that is a big feature of the 2025 vintage is the extreme disparity in yields.

Cheval Blanc's Corpandy reported an exceptionally low yield of only 15hl/ha – one of the lowest of any major estate and something the team has never experienced before.

Charlotte Krajewski, technical director and chief winemaker at Château Clos Cantenac (and also Château Seraphine in Pomerol), recorded a yield of 25hl/ha, the smallest harvest ever.

At Troplong-Mondot, the picking teams noted extreme variations in yield from one plot to another – from 12hl/ha to 40hl/ha giving an average of 27hl/ha.

Then again, Château Canon achieved great yields of 40hl/ha – mostly due to the homogeneity of Canon’s vineyards on the plateau.

Diminishing returns

Others also intentionally sought lower yields. Gregory Leymarie, new managing director at Château Valandraud, after Jean-Luc Thunevin sold his majority share earlier this year, oversaw stricter selection and lower yields of 36–37hl/ha.

He said for the first time not everything harvested on ‘grand vin’ plots will make it into the top red wine with a strict selection decreasing production from roughly 40-50,000 bottles down to around 35,000 bottles.

Similarly for the estate’s second wine, Virginie de Valandraud, the production will also decrease by roughly half to give the wine ‘a better signature’.

But while lower yields can mean higher quality, the balance with commercial viability comes into play.

The team at Château Bellefont Belcier, for example, picked 28hl/ha when closer to 40hl is considered necessary to start covering costs.

And such is the size of the harvest that certain cuvées won't appear this year, especially second labels such as Petit Cheval and Chapelle d’Ausone.

Happy overall

Nonetheless, most châteaux seemed happy with what they had accomplished given the tricky circumstances.

Benjamin Laforet, technical director at Château Angelus, said the biggest flex was, ‘to say we can produce wines people are eager to drink in bottle even in these conditions’.

Comparing and contrasting years, Jean-Christophe Meyrou, general manager of Vignobles K described 2025 as having ‘better potential than 2020 and 2022 with more balance and more definition’ as well as an ‘interesting touch of tannins and lower alcohol’.

Nicolas Audebert described 2025 as a combination of, ‘parts of 2016 and something of 2022 – there’s a balance between freshness and maturity with energy, intensity, concentration and density’.

Julien Barthe at Château Beauséjour Becot praised his 2025 as a ‘distinguished, racy wine – where we have the true identity of the vineyard – you know you’re in Bordeaux’.

Constance Vaulthier at Château Ausone noted: ‘There’s not the opulence of 2022 but a nice balance’.

Finally, Aymeric de Gironde, technical director at Château Troplong Mondot, described 2025 as a mix of 2022 and 2023 expressions with ‘brightness of aromas from 2023, some intensity of the 2022, but more mineral – salivating, fresh, lots of energy’.

However, there was a touch of ruefulness as he concluded: ‘We’ve seen heatwaves in August in every vintage for the last seven years, we know we need to protect freshness and ensure the berries don’t lose their brightness.'

‘2025 is exactly the style of wine we want to make – if only we made more’.

What's new

Chanel has brought its four estates – Rauzan-Ségla (Margaux), Canon and Berliquet (both St-Émilion), and Domaine de l’Île (on the island of Porquerolles) – together under a single unified banner: 'Les Vignobles’.

Each estate will retain full operational autonomy, its own team and its distinct winemaking identity while Nicolas Audebert will continue to oversee the four properties as a whole.

The 2025 vintage will be Jean-Luc Thunevin’s last at Château Valandraud after 35 years.

Planned changes have now formally taken hold for his estates that now mean Marie and Christophe Lefevere, who already own Moulin du Cadet, Soutard-Cadet, Villemaurine, and Sansonnet, have taken full ownership of Château Valandraud as well as the Thunevin négociant business.

At 75, Jean-Luc Thunevin is stepping back from day-to-day involvement at Valandraud while retaining owership of his other projects, including Clos Badon-Thunevin and Clos du Beau Père.

Château La Couspaude (St-Émilion) completed its final vintage under Aubert family ownership before its January 2026 sale with the winemaking now handled by Jean-Christophe Meyrou of Vignobles K.

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from St-Emilion

Related articles

Pomerol, the smallest and most clay-dominant of Bordeaux’s great red-wine appellations, turned the 2025 vintage’s challenges into one of its quiet successes.

Its heavy clay soils with the distinctive iron-rich subsoil (crasse de fer) retained more moisture than the gravel-heavy Left Bank communes, allowing the vines to reach full phenolic ripeness without the extreme stress or over-concentration seen elsewhere.

The late-August rains were described as ‘miraculous’ by several growers, refreshing the vines at exactly the right moment and delivering the vintage’s signature freshness and lower alcohols.

The result is classic Pomerol character – plush blue and black fruit, floral lift and velvety textures – but with greater purity, transparency to terroir and a cool, mineral edge.

Eric Monneret, technical director at Château La Pointe, emphasised that, ‘terroir is 50-75% of the result. If you don’t have some clay or limestone then 2025 would have been difficult'.

Many wines sit between the opulence of 2022 and the precision of 2020 or 2016: fragrant, drinkable and structured, yet without the heat or heaviness that can sometimes mask the clay’s natural elegance.

Tiny black marbles

Quality aside, this already small appellation also produced some of the lowest quantities of wine in Bordeaux this vintage.

Yields are capped at 49hl/ha in Pomerol but many estates recorded crops under half that in 2025.

Although some such as Château Clinet (34hl/ha), L’Eglise Clinet (33hl/ha) and Château Clos du Clocher (32hl/ha) were not so hard it was a different story elsewhere.

Château Seraphine recorded 22hl/ha, the smallest harvest ever. Château Lafleur and Petrus just 20hl/ha, while Château Petit Village recorded just 16hl/ha.

The key cause of this was the water deficit at the start of the season, which gave rise to very small berries and therefore very low amounts of juice.

By way of example, a 'normal' Merlot berry at harvest time would weigh between 1.4 to 1.6 g.

Christian Moueix, president of the négociant house Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix, noted that since they recorded no rain between 22 May and 22 August, this led to tight small clusters and berry weights of 0.8–0.9 g for Merlot (even 0.7 g on some gravel parcels).

Marielle Cazaux director of and noted the 30mm rain on 20 August ‘watered the plants, gave more juice and softer phenolics’.

Small measures of relief

Although extremely dry and frequently very hot, many winemakers noted that the season was less relentlessly hot than in, say, 2022.

And, even in summer, cooler evenings helped maintain levels of freshness and aromatic definition in the final wines.

Juliette Couderc, technical director of Château L’Evangile, noted that the vintage was drier than 2022 but benefited from cooler evenings, resulting in ‘less density than 2022’ and the need to be careful with tannins.

‘In 2022 we had 22 days of heatwaves, in 2025 we had eight or nine and we had cooler evenings in 2025,' he said.

Ronan Laborde, owner and winemaker at Château Clinet, agreed, saying that despite, ‘six days in the summer above 40°C , the nights were barely above 20°C and the 35mm rain on 20 August ‘changed the landscape’.

Extraordinary measures

Nonetheless, teams sometimes used various and novel ways to beat the heat when the mercury rose. For example, at Château La Conseillante they applied zinc oxide to protect against harmful UVA and UVB rays during the 10–16 August heatwave.

At Société Agricole de Lafleur, water stress became critical. Rather than traditional irrigation, the team performed what it calls ‘soil water correction’ on only the highest-need plots – less than one-fifth of the vineyard surface.

They repurposed an old harvest machine to open the soil in the middle of the rows, delivered a minimal 10 litres per square metre directly into the ground (15 cm deep), then covered it again.

‘No water to the vines directly,’ Techincal Director Omri Ram explained. ‘Just the minimum necessary to keep the soils alive.’

No correction was applied at Grand Village or Les Perrières; only selected parts of Lafleur received it.

At other times, natural methods proved they still worked perfectly well too. Marie-Laure Latorre, new general manager at Château de Sales (previously at Château Jean Faure), reported ‘no problem with drought’ thanks to deep roots penetrating 2–3 metres in the clay-rich, water-retaining soils.

Harvests were early – very early at times. Château Lafleur experienced its earliest ever harvest starting with the whites on 19 August and reds on 26 August.

Noëmie Durantou Reihac, winemaker of the Durantou estates including L’Eglise Clinet, described 2025 as a ‘tip-toe vintage, walking on tightrope’ with balance between the tannins, alcohol and acidities being the hardest element to achieve.

They started the harvest on 27 August – the earliest ever – with the team, ‘having to make decisions about blending even before the vinifications’ due to such limited yields.

A counter-intuitive result

Olivier Berrouet, technical director at Château Petrus, was pleased with the final result: ‘What impressed us was the gap between what happened during the season and what we could have expected and what’s in the glass.

'It’s the real strength of the clay – the wines don’t carry the wounds of the vintage’.

In terms of style, he said it’s a ‘powerful Petrus’ where the goal was to ‘control the tannic power and to not allow the structure to dominate the aromatic intensity’.

Jean-Baptiste Bourotte owner of Château Clos du Clocher calls 2025 a, ‘counter-intuitive / paradoxical vintage because of the weather and the surprising resulting style’.

Christian Moueix, president of the négociant house Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix and owner of family properties that include Châteaux Bélair-Monange, La Fleur-Pétrus and Trotanoy described the vintage as ‘saved by the rain’ and something ‘miraculous’ and ultimately calling it, ‘a good to very good vintage’.

What's new

One of the most striking and widely discussed moves of the vintage came from Société Agricole de Lafleur in Pomerol.

The estate took the significant step of designating all six of its wines as Vin de France, stepping away from Pomerol AOC rules.

This decision reflects both a philosophical commitment to flexibility in the face of climate extremes and a desire for greater freedom in winemaking and labelling.

The guiding philosophy was clearly explained by Techincal Director, Omri Ram.

He said: ‘Soils [are the] number one victim of climate change – we just don’t see it. We try to mitigate the extreme moments of the year.’

The result, according to Ram, was an ‘amazing vintage’ with record-early picking dates (whites harvested 19 August, reds 26 August) and yields of 35hl/ha.

The full 2025 range under Vin de France is:

Lafleur 2025 Vin de France Rouge

Les Pensées 2025 Vin de France Rouge

Les Perrières 2025 Vin de France Rouge

Les Champs Libres 2025 Vin de France Blanc

Le Grand Village Rouge 2025 Vin de France Rouge

Le Grand Village Blanc 2025 Vin de France Blanc

Elsewhere, Domaines Jacques Thienpont (Le Pin, L’IF, L’Hêtre): It was announced during the Primeurs that Vianney Gravereaux (ex-Ornellaia/Masseto) has joined as managing director with Diana Berrouet Garcia promoted to chief winemaker and estates manager. Jacques Thienpont will gradually step back while remaining involved.

Château de Sales: Marie-Laure Latorre (agricultural engineer and oenologist) was appointed general director in September 2025 arriving from Château Jean Faure in St-Émilion where she handled technical, commercial and large-scale restructuring projects

Further reading from this report

• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from Pomerol

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St-Julien delivered classic poise and personality in 2025.

The appellation’s gravel soils with pockets of clay provided good drainage yet retained enough moisture through the dry summer to support even ripening, while the late-August rains and cool September nights preserved acidity and delivered the vintage’s signature freshness.

Nonetheless, yields were among the lowest ever for some estates (20–28 hl/ha range), but the resulting wines show supple tannins, vibrant colour, stony grip and excellent balance – elegant, structured and age-worthy, with the low pH/fresh acidity and fine tannins that define successful St-Julien vintages.

Sara Lecompte Cuvelier owner of Château Léoville Poyferré highlighted, ‘the unusual balance between concentration, fruit and freshness’ and noted she, ‘didn’t expect low alcohols and so much freshness’.

Mathieu Bordes director of Château Lagrange called the 2025 vintage the ‘fourth warmest ever’ with a ‘cooler September’ leading to their ‘earliest harvest ever’. and noted the smallest berries since 1984, the shortest maceration in 19 years, and a style ‘like 2009 on the attack’.

Tiny quantities

Although yields fell across Bordeaux, a striking fact about St-Julien is how many were lower even than in 2013 – a year marked by poor weather and ruined crops.

Château Langoa Barton recorded a yield of 20hl/ha – ‘worse than 2013’ – with maturation blocked by lack of water until the August rain.

Sister property, Château Léoville Barton, which this year celebrates 200 years of Barton family ownership, likewise produced a yield of 22hl/ha, ‘one of the lowest ever’. Even the poor 2013 vintage conditions produced a yield of 27hl/ha.

Jean-Michel Laporte at Château Talbot reported a yield of 28.3hl/ha – ‘one of the lowest since 2013’.

Part of the issue was berry size, as noted by Mathieu Bordes. At Château Ducru-Beaucaillou recorded grape weights were as low as 0.6-0.8g for Cabernet Sauvignon (in a good year 1.1-1.3g) and 0.8g-1.1g for Merlot (in a good year 1.4-1.6g).

Making wine like it's 1989

Despite a lack of quantity, Jean-Michel Laporte added more hopefully that 2025, ‘could be a year full of great bargains’.

François-Xavier Maroteaux, owner of Château Branaire-Ducru, and president of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB) described the vintage as, ‘a nice ambassador for Bordeaux – a great vintage’ that ‘will be nice for people to drink early if they want to’.

He said it has ‘impressive fragrance’ and a style where, ‘concentration could have given something similar to 2022 but finally the alcohol is not the same and the style of the tannins and freshness is more similar to 2020’.

Nicolas Sinoquet, president director general of Château Gruaud Larose said they had made ‘the wines we like, fresh and silky’.

‘The vines seem to have found the right balance this year,’ he said.

'When you pick at the right time, the wines will be as they should be’ he said, adding that the 2025 style reminds him of 1989 – ‘a wine I love a lot’.

Anniversaries

The 2025 vintage coincided with impressive milestones. Château Gruaud Larose celebrated its 300th vintage and the Barton family reached 200 years at Château Léoville Barton.

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from St-Julien

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Margaux produced one of the most elegant and surprising expressions of the vintage, with varying styles dependant on harvest and vinification decisions.

While June was exceptionally dry during cell multiplication and multiple days exceeded 40°C, the lighter late-August/early-September rains (around 60 mm) arrived at precisely the right moment.

These showers eased stress, moderating sugars without dilution, and delivering the 'miracle' freshness that turned potential 2022-style opulence into something far more classical.

The result is wines with ripe but non-heavy tannins, unique floral expression, juicy yet precise fruit, and a supple, silky texture framed by tension, energy and minerality.

Thomas Duroux, technical director at Château Palmer, explained that the rains brought the three elements of ripeness together perfectly.

These wines are less 'solar' or exuberant than 2022, more classical and fresh (close to 2016 in many winemakers’ minds), with the concentration and density of warmer years but far greater drinkability and subtlety.

Axel Heinz technical director at Château Lascombes was surprised by the freshness and precision: ‘We have power, richness and density but framed by freshness and crisp and vibrant aromatics’.

The resulting wines are a real, ‘surprise from such an extreme year – these are still unmistakably Bordeaux. In the past we’d have a cold growing season saved by an Indian summer but this year we had a cooler and rainier end to the season which stopped it being so solar and exuberant.’

Unforeseen fermentations

Small berries were universal (‘as small as 2022’). For Château Margaux, 2025 will represent the smallest volume of grand vin production since 1856 with only 37% of the total yield of 22hl/ha going into the top wine.

Château Siran recorded its smallest yield without hail or frost at 32 hl/ha, and Château Brane-Cantenac's owner, Henri Lurton, reported the Margaux average yield of 28hl/ha with very small berries (Merlot down 30%, Cabernet 15%).

Winemakers also emphasised the need for adaptive, thoughtful vinification.

Philippe Bascaules, technical director at Château Margaux, called it a ‘great vintage’ that required more precise decisions on temperature, maceration and length than 2018 or 2022.

‘The vinifications were uneven – not as good as 2018 or 2022 in terms of homogeneity. We saw that when we the grapes entered into the vats, some had alcohol levels less than 13% ABV and others at 15.5% which meant we had to really adapt the vinifying conditions. Some tanks took 12 days and 28 days for others – we’ve never seen that before in the cellar.’

Château Giscours had already used cover crops and a lowered canopy to retain water in the heat, and was then also able to put it new thermo-regulated cellar for cold maceration to use for the first time this year.

The 'miracle' vintage

During our tasting, Château Rauzan-Ségla’s director of development, Axelle Araud, highlighted the wine's unique floral expression, and a perfect marriage of 2022 ripeness with 2016 energy and tension.

Henri Lurton called the style ‘close to 2016 which was really fresh… less alcohol than 2022’.

Gonzague Lurton owner of Château Durfort-Vivens called it a ‘miracle year’ and remarked on the ageing ability with ripeness, lots of tannins and high acidity.

At Château Marquis d’Alesme, Aymone Fabre, said he and his team found, ‘more complexity in the wine than 2023 – it’s the same kind of modern style in terms of keeping the freshness but also there’s something really drinkable about these wines’.

Daisy Sichel at Château Angludet described it as, ‘a really good drinking vintage. It’s one you can drink young and find pleasure with but also keep for 30 years. There’s matter and silkiness, and tension, but subtle’.

Anniversaries

Château Giscours marked 30 years under the ownership of the Albada Jelgersma family and with general manager Alexander van Beek at the helm.

Château Margaux completed its final year of organic conversion (certification expected 2026).

The Lurton family marked 100 years at Château Brane-Cantenac

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from Margaux

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Pauillac stood out as one of the most classically powerful yet refined appellations of the vintage.

Its deep gravel soils, which can be unforgiving in pure drought years, benefited enormously from the heavier late-August rains in the northern Médoc (70mm fell at Mouton, 20mm more than normal) and the cool summer nights.

Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy, technical director at Château Mouton Rothschild, explained: ‘It was the earliest water deficit we’ve ever registered here at veraison but the vines didn’t appear to be stressed. In June 2022 we had 115mm of rain at the end of the month, in June 2025 we had 60mm.

'But unlike 2022 where we could see some stress on the leaves, leaf loss and the beginning of dehydration, we didn’t see any of that in 2025. Because of the early deficit the berries grew with the water restriction.’

The late rain arrived at exactly the right moment, easing water stress, moderating sugars without dilution, preserving acidity and allowing perfect phenolic ripeness.

Pierre Montegut technical director at AXA Millésime's estates explained how dryness delivered concentration while the early-September rain was ‘wonderful for the Cabernets’ at Pichon Baron, producing ‘more fruit, more freshness and more elegance’ than 2022.

Frédéric Casteja at Château Batailley called it, ‘quite an amazing vintage’ and one where ‘we had time to wait until each grape variety was ripe’.

The result is classically structured, mineral-driven Pauillac wines with intense colour, graphite, wet stone and liquorice notes, but delivered with unusual freshness, lower alcohols (mostly 12.5–13.5%) and a transparency that can be described as ‘hands-off’ and ‘terroir-led’.

High Cabernet percentages (98% at Mouton the highest ever in the blend) and precise winemaking amplified the precision and energy.

The wines are typically less dense than 2022, they don’t carry the same muscular structures and yet many of the IPT levels are just as high but with lower pHs giving a feeling of intense freshness, coolness and perhaps more streamlined at this point.

Game-changer

Winemakers were unanimous that the late rain completely changed the profile from what was expected at the end of August.

Eric Kohler technical director at Château Lafite Rothschild called it, ‘a vintage of happiness… a symphony of all the perfect parameters’, noting a yield of 27hl/ha and a style ‘closer to 2020 but perhaps more delicate’.

Nicolas Glumineau technical director at Château Pichon Comtesse stressed the dramatic contrast in rainfall, noting that 70mm fell between May-July 2025 while it was 280mm in May-July 2024.

Château Pedesclaux’s director, Christophe Congé, noted the north half of the appellation’s extra rain as an added benefit and one reason behind the unusually low alcohol levels of only 12.5% ‘with such mature tannins’.

As in other appellations, it was an early start for pickers, and the earliest harvest ever at Pichon Comtesse (young Merlots were picked from 28 August)

Meanwhile, the Mouton team finished the harvest on the 20 September, the earliest ever and just one day after Château Margaux started to pick its Cabernets.

Abundant aromas

Winemakers continually mentioned the aromatic intensity and profile of the 2025 wines in their descriptions and comparisons.

Nicolas Glumineau described an, ‘aromatic complexity close to 2020'.

Mathieu Bessonnet, technical director at Château Pontet-Canet said the wine style was ‘like 2023 with aromatics and brightness but a higher quality of tannins’.

Emeline Borie at Grand Puy Lacoste and Hélène Genin, technical director at Château Latour, both emphasised the freshness and abundant aromas.

For Danjoy, 2025, ‘brings us back to “classic” weight, balance and fruit expression.'

It's 'a very complete vintage like 2010, 2016 and 2020,' agreed Glumineau, while Genin said it had, 'the power of 2016 but the elegance and quality of tannins as 2020’.

AXA Millèsimes' managing director, Christian Seeley, summed it up as: ‘The charm of a solar vintage but with the advantages of freshness and slightly lower alcohols… that’s what everyone wants’.

Recent changes

In a personnel change at the group, long-time general manager of Pichon Baron, Corinne Illic, will head to the United States in July 2026 as general manager of AXA’s American properties; Outpost Wines on Howell Mountain and Platt Vineyard in Sonoma.

For the Jacky Lorenzetti-owned properties, nephew Félix Pariente Lorenzetti expanded his role significantly.

Already presiding over Châteaux Pédesclaux (Pauillac) and Lafon-Rochet (St-Estèphe) since July 2025, he is now also director of the family’s fine-wine trading subsidiary LD Vins (the Grands Crus Classés specialist négoce founded by Thierry Decré and Frédéric de Luze).

At co-owned Château d’Issan (Margaux), Edgard Kappelhoff Lançon joined to head commercial and marketing after Augustin Lacaille’s departure to Pape Clément.

Internal technical-director swaps included Vincent Bache-Gabrielsen (now at Lafon-Rochet & Lilian Ladouys) and ex-Lafite’s Christophe Congé at Pédesclaux.

Coming soon

Château Lafite Rothschild (Pauillac, 1st Growth) made its last vintage in the historic cellar before transitioning to a major new stone winery due in time for the 2026 vintage (a 4,500m² extension + 6,000m² renovation by Bernard Quirot and Atelier EGR).

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from Pauillac

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Pessac-Léognan and Graves produced wines of striking purity and mineral precision, but the vintage exposed clear differences across the appellation’s patchwork of terroirs – both for styles and yields.

However, Fabien Teitgen at Château Smith Haut Lafitte described 2025 as the third warmest year after 2022 and 2023 but with, ‘more rain in 2025 than 2022’ and cooler minimum temperatures.

Gravel-dominant sites, while well-drained, were more vulnerable to the prolonged summer drought and recorded tighter, lower-yielding crops.

Meanwhile, estates with deeper clay or limestone influence benefited from better water retention and cooler night-time temperatures, delivering more balanced, vibrant wines with fresher acidity and refined tannins.

Despite the, at times intense, heat, Jean-Jacques Bonnie owner of Château Malartic-Lagravière observed that the vineyard, ‘didn’t look like it was feeling the stress… [we] didn’t have the long and tiring heat like in 2022’.

As elsewhere in the region, the late-August rains (lighter here than in the northern Médoc but still transformative) eased hydric stress without causing dilution, while early harvesting for white wines preserved exceptional aromatics and acidity.

The overall result is elegant, terroir-transparent wines – cool fruit, wet-stone and graphite minerality, with Cabernet freshness balancing Merlot roundness – emphasising vibrancy, texture and energy rather than sheer power or opulence.

Many winemakers noted a successful marriage of 2010/2016 structure with 2022 ripeness but without the heat or heaviness, though the vintage required careful extraction and sorting to manage thick, drought-stressed skins.

A paradox vintage

As always, temperature extremes call for more attention in the cellar.

At Château Pape Clément winemaker Matt Turner focused on, ‘texture and energy and vibrancy rather than just power’, using optical sorting and careful extraction on thick drought-stressed skins.

Turner was joined by Pablo Laborde (formerly of Penfolds/Treasury Wine Estates), who as group director in early 2026, overseeing blending and ageing across the portfolio – including a major refocus at Château Pape Clément on its historic heart plots in Pessac (fruit from Martillac is now directed to the second wine, Clémentin)

There were many comparisons to 2022 as well, but with some nuance.

Guillaume Alexandre Marx, commercial director for Domaine Clarence Dillon, the owner of Château Haut-Brion, Château La Mission Haut-Brion, and Château Quintus said: ‘For us 2025 is really in the style 2010, 2016 and 2022 – a combination of the three. We have fruit ripeness and a lot of freshness.’

However, Guillaume Pouthier director of Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion called 2025, ‘a paradox vintage – warm and dry with lots of tannins,’ but ‘there’s less volume in the mouth because of less alcohol and less glycerol’.

He said there, ‘is the same energy as 2022 but the balance is different’.

What's new

In one of the year’s biggest transitions, 90-year-old Bernard Magrez has just handed over leadership of his extensive estate group to his son Philippe Magrez (who has long overseen commercial and export strategy).

Pablo Laborde (formerly of Penfolds/Treasury Wine Estates) joined as group director in early 2026, overseeing blending and ageing across the portfolio – including a major refocus at Château Pape Clément on its historic heart plots in Pessac (Martillac fruit now directed to the second wine, Clémentin).

Smith Haut Lafitte (Pessac-Léognan): Tracey Dobbin MW joined the Executive Board for international strategy earlier this year while Florence Cathiard stepped into a co-chair role alongside her children Mathilde and Alice.

The 2025 vintage was the last for the late Daniel Cathiard who passed away in January 2026 with a special commemorative label already in place for the primeur sample bottles.

Maison Dourthe (owner of Châteaux Belgrave, La Garde, Le Boscq, etc.): Pénélope Godefroy (ex-Artémis Domaines) took over as CEO/Managing Director in May 2025, focusing on international growth.

Coming soon

Château Haut-Brion (Pessac-Léognan, 1st Growth) has its striking Annabelle Selldorf-designed, carbon-neutral winery complex (built with rammed earth using estate soils) nearing completion.

The project includes production areas, a museum/library, and research centre. It opens to visitors in January 2027, so the 2025 wines were made in the existing setup – but this remains a defining milestone for the estate.

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from Pessac & Graves

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St-Estèphe’s clay and gravel mix that defines much of the area proved a major advantage in 2025.

It retained just enough moisture through the intense dry summer to avoid the extreme stress seen on pure gravel sites further south, while the late-August rains (heavier in the northern Médoc) allowed perfect completion of ripening without dilution or overripeness.

Château Cos d’Estournel noted that: ‘70mm of rain at the end of August helped avoid high sugar content and finish ripening of the skins.’

The result is wines with classical St-Estèphe power and structure, but delivered with unusual freshness, lower alcohols (mostly 12.7–13.6%), powdery/chalky tannins and a cool, mineral-driven precision that shows real terroir-transparency.

Overall, the heavier clay soils and extra northern rain delivered the vintage’s signature combination of concentration and lift better than many gravel-dominant neighbours.

This was not the showy, high-octane style some feared after the heat; instead, it is refined, energetic and age-worthy – a vintage where the best estates turned the blending challenge (‘more tannins, less acidity and alcohol’) into an elegant success.

Acceptable yields and early starts

Yields were low but not catastrophic compared with Pomerol (25.9hl/ha) or St-Julien (26.4hl/ha).

Indeed, several estates, like Château Pedesclaux, achieved a relatively generous yield of 41hl/ha thanks to clay's water retention and precise, intra-plot selection.

Pickers were called out early – 3 September at Château Cos d’Estournel, breaking a record set only as recently as 2022. The 2025 vintage was the final year of their organic conversion (certification expected 2026).

It was a little more stop-start at Château Montrose, where the team extended picking to 16 days (normally 11–13) to wait for each terroir and grape variety to be properly ripe.

One of a kind

Winemakers emphasised the importance of balance in what Vincent Millet, technical director at Château Calon Ségur, called a ‘one of a kind vintage'.

He said: 'The key was to get the right balance between power and elegance… we find the tannins of 2005, 2010, 2015 – all great vintages’,

The estate celebrated the first vintage in its brand-new cellar, equipped with smaller vats (10 hl, 25 hl, 34 hl, and one 73 hl) for even greater selection across its key plots.

Winemaking techniques were key in this appellation, which has a reputation for tough and grippy tannins.

Fabrice Bacquey, cellar master at Château Phelan Ségur described how he and his team conducted a short maceration (average 24 days for Merlot and 25 for Cabernet, whereas the minimum time is usually around 26 days) aiming for a style with ‘tannin finesse, balance and freshness like 2020’.

Montrose likewise changed its extraction by stopping mid-alcoholic fermentation for the first time after shortening the average maceration to 18 days (some vats at 15 days).

Montrose's team described the 2025s as sitting, ‘between 2016 and 2020 where you get concentration without the level of alcohol. Not so easy to get both'.

Château Ormes de Pez's new white (first vintage of planted Sauvignon and Sémillon inside St-Estèphe) marked another step in the appellation’s white-wine development.

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: Top wines from St-Estèphe

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‘Paradoxical’ and ‘miraculous’ are just two of the many words that can be used to describe the 2025 vintage in Bordeaux.

They join ‘small’, ‘classic’, ‘modern’ or even ‘post-modern’, ‘fresh’ and ‘drinkable’. And that’s across all styles where there are some excellent and exciting reds, whites and sweet wines.

Let’s begin with paradoxical – firstly because this was a year of extremes that somehow produced wines of balance and poise rather than the heavy, opulent, high-alcohol style many expected after such a hot and dry summer – indeed the third hottest in the last 30 years alongside 2003 and 2022.

And miraculous because the ‘magical’ late-August rains (60-90mm across the region) replenished soils with much-needed water after almost three months of drought and completely reshaped the outcome.

While the vintage certainly carries comparisons to 2022 due to the extreme weather, the results in the glass are entirely different.

The 2025 vintage experienced cooler nights and harvest conditions as well as rainfall at different times. There was hydric stress in both vintages but not the same accumulation of sugar and alcohol.

While there’s plenty to celebrate in 2025, and some truly exceptional wines on offer, the picture isn’t as complete as 2022 where the weather homogenised the wines to the extent that pretty much everyone made a good wine.

Further vintage comparisons seem futile with the best wines carrying elements of all the top years – the structure of 2016, poise of 2019, freshness of 2020, depth of 2022 and charm of 2023.

It really sits in a league and style of its own. At the top it’s extraordinary but there are pitfalls and not every wine was a success – it’s not a year to buy blind.

Terroir and winemaking

Terroir played a large part with unavoidable hydric stress on vines too young or too old as well as in the most well-drained sites.

Harvest dates and picking decisions were critical as were cellar decisions on fermentation lengths and temperatures as well as maceration and extraction levels.

Thick skins and high levels of anthocyanin ensured winemakers worked more delicately in the cellars to avoid over extraction or harsh tannins, they will also dictate the length of ageing and percentage in new oak.

As one winemaker put it: ‘It would have been easy to have made a monster in 2025.'

Looking back at the growing season

Early in the season, the narrative pointed firmly towards another 2022: historic heat, drought, tiny berries and the earliest harvest on record.

Yet the wines in barrel tell a far more nuanced, balanced and interesting story.

These are concentrated, aromatically pure, vibrantly coloured reds with powdery, chalky tannins, cool blue and red fruit, saline minerality – with the phenolic density and structure of a warm vintage, but none of the opulence or heaviness.

On the whole tannins are high and come across as either ‘chewy’ or more ‘structured and dense’, some up to 90IPT and around the level of the 2010s but acidities are also extremely high with low pHs.

This is fine where there’s ripe fruit and softness but wines can become angular and sharp, even with a citric / lemony citrus aspect to the acidity if the maturity wasn’t perfect.

Expect vivid and vibrant colours to the wines with intense and expressive aromatics - particularly from ripe Cabernets.

It’s inevitable that there are differences in style across the region, as there should be, and this is definitely a year where terroir shines through, but producers also faced the realities of quick decision making and allowing a ‘hands off’ approach in the winery.

There’s also a question of yields with many simply having less choice and fewer grapes to work with.

As one winemaker put it: ‘We had to make decisions about blending as we picked in the vineyard just to fill the tanks.'

Alcohols sit comfortably between 12.5% and 13.6% for the vast majority (from one to two degrees lower than 2022 and other ‘great’ vintages like 2020 and 2018), pH levels are low (frequently 3.3–3.7), and acidity drives a mouthwatering freshness that makes the wines almost ready to drink.

As Olivier Berrouet, winemaker at Petrus reflected: ‘What impressed us was the gap between what happened during the season and what we could have expected, and what’s in the glass. The wines don’t carry the wounds of the vintage’.

As Château Quintus pointed out, ‘without the rains we would have made syrup’.

The five prerequisites for a great vintage

I’ve already written about the weather conditions throughout the growing season, as well as five key takeaways from the vintage however it’s still worth noting that 2025 fulfilled – and in many ways exceeded – all five of the classic ISVV (Bordeaux School of Oenology) preconditions for a great red vintage, something that has happened only twice since 2021.

The growing season delivered quick and even flowering and fruit set thanks in part to heavy rains during Easter weekend in April that replenished the water tables.

Dry and warm late-spring/early-summer conditions caused gradual hydric stress that stopped vegetative growth before véraison, there was continued photosynthesis right up to harvest, and mostly dry, moderate conditions during picking itself.

There was also a sixth bonus: almost no losses from frost, hail or mildew, something that has plagued Bordeaux in recent years and is often the cause of such low yields.

Flowering was abundant and regular in mid-May. Fruit set in June was more difficult due to some rain and cooler temperatures, particularly for the Cabernets, but the overall result was still successful.

A dry July and August then induced the crucial water stress that slowed and eventually halted vine growth before colour change, although a little late in some cases given how early the season was.

The pivotal late-August rains (50–70mm or more in many places, up to 90mm in parts) arrived at exactly the right moment, swelling berries slightly, moderating sugars and preserving freshness without causing dilution on the best-drained terroirs.

Good weather continued into September with cool nights and helpful rain at key moments, allowing almost all varieties to reach full ripeness under ideal conditions.

Harvests took place largely under dry conditions, with dry whites from mid-August, Merlot from the end of August, and Cabernet in mid-to-late September – one of the earliest on record.

What the winemakers say

Yet the wines don’t taste like it.

‘Until mid-August we were on track for another 2022,’ Thomas Duroux at Palmer told me.

‘Then with the rains the three ripenesses came together - technological, phenolic and aromatic.’

Axel Heinz at Lascombes echoed the surprise: 'It’s surprised everyone because the wines are not exactly what we thought they were going to be before the summer finished.

'Unlike many years where we see a cold season saved by an Indian summer, this year we had a cooler and rainier end to the season which stopped it being so solar and exuberant. There’s power, richness and density but framed by freshness and crisp and vibrant aromatics.'

Philippe Bascaules at Château Margaux summed it up neatly: ‘It’s definitely not a solar vintage, much more classical and fresh with the concentration and density of the 2022, energy, vivacity and tension and balance of 2016.’

The team waited until after late September rains (longer than many) to harvest the Cabernets and have produced a brilliant, if atypical style for the vintage.

The result in the glass is concentration without heaviness. The berries were tiny – many estates described them as the smallest since 2022 or even earlier – giving high skin-to-juice ratios and beautiful natural intensity.

Weight wise they were less than 1g – commonly 0.6-0.8g for the Cabernets and 0.8-1.1g for Merlot.

‘It wasn’t a year that favoured one grape over another’ explained one winemaker ,with both grapes ripening at roughly the same time in places.

Tannins are ripe and refined rather than green or aggressive, and the fruit is cool and vibrant rather than jammy.

pH levels on the reds are often pleasingly low (many sitting in the 3.6–3.8 range), and you get that lovely combination of power and tension.

In the Médoc and Graves the Cabernet Sauvignon often showed the vintage’s classic side - tight, focused and mineral, with ripe but refined tannins.

Pierre Montégut at Château Pichon Baron described it as ‘like 2022 for richness and opulence but also like the more classic style and powerful tannins from 2018 – and for size of the berries. At the end we have more fruit, more freshness and more elegance.’

On the Right Bank the picture was similar but with its own character.

Nicolas Audebert at Châteaux Canon and Berliquet said the wines had ‘balance between freshness and maturity with energy, intensity, concentration, density.

'Everything in the same wine. You are expecting something riper, more fat, heavy, but it’s fresh and vibrant.’

Dry whites and sweet wines

Dry whites were successful if still mixed. Many estates reported aromatic intensity and lively acidity despite the earliness, with pH values often around 3.1.

It’s a good but not necessarily great year for the dry whites but there are plenty of new cuvées to get excited about as well as a cohort of wines joining the newly established Médoc Blanc AC.

Sweet wines in Sauternes and Barsac also benefited hugely from the clean noble rot that followed the late rain, producing concentrated yet vibrant wines with high sugar levels (often 145-158 g/l+) but retaining excellent freshness.

Winemaking choices

Winemaking this year required real precision and restraint. With such small berries and high skin-to-juice ratios, several estates shortened macerations and extracted more gently.

Fabrice at Phelan Ségur told me it was the shortest maceration they’ve ever done – averaging 24 days for Merlot and 25 for Cabernet instead of the usual minimum of 26 days.

Château Montrose stopped extracting mid-alcoholic fermentation in some vats, averaging only 18 days instead of 21.

Many producers mentioned using optical sorters more aggressively and paying extra attention to plot-by-plot selection to either cut sun-damaged grapes in advance of the harvest or remove the grapes to avoid overripe or dried fruit flavours.

At Château Lagrange, winemaker Matthieu Bordes noted there had been time to adapt: ‘We did the shortest maceration in 19 years with a maximum 21 days and minimum 15 days.’

The low alcohols and high tannin levels forced careful decisions in the cellar. ‘We’re in Bordeaux, we still need to have tannins and density,’ Guillaume Pouthier at Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion said.

‘We have the same energy as 2022 but the balance is different – it’s how you manage this [that is important].’

Yields and economic reality

This is the fifth consecutive small crop, and 2025 has taken it even further.

The Gironde produced roughly 290 million litres – the smallest harvest since 1991 and about half the volume of 2016.

Many classed-growth estates reported yields of 25-35 hl/ha, with some white plots even lower.

Château Margaux recorded its lowest grand vin production since 1856 at 22hl/ha while Château Cheval Blanc received 20hl/ha onto the sorting table and only 15hl/ha into the vats.

Pomerol and St-Julien were hit particularly hard at 25.9hl/ha and 26.4hl/ha – decreases of 29.2% and 27.3% respectively on the 10 year average.

In a region that can comfortably make great wines at 50hl/ha these numbers are stark, even for Margaux (28.8hl/ha) and Pauillac (30.2%).

The low fruit set was partly a hangover from 2024’s difficult flowering, made worse by the dry summer.

Add in the ongoing reduction in vineyard area (the Bordeaux vineyard is now down to around 86,000 ha) and one can understand why there is simply not very much wine this year.

From a purely economic point of view this is tough for many growers with several expressing minimum yields closer to 40hl/ha to break even or remain economy viable to continue business.

But quality-wise there’s no doubt 2025 has pockets of greatness. The best wines have real class – elegant, age-worthy and full of personality.

It will be fascinating to see how the campaign unfolds.

Market context

The first major release – Pontet-Canet, traditionally one of the earliest – came out at a modest +4% on its 2024 price.

That small increase, in a vintage of genuine scarcity and high quality, is being watched closely as an early signal of pricing discipline.

Liv-ex data shows the broader fine wine market has stabilised after years of correction, with the bid-to-offer ratio finally turning positive for the first time in three years.

Whether that translates into stronger en primeur demand will depend on whether producers, merchants and customers all play their part in moving good wine to where it will be enjoyed.

Methodology

For this report, I made 82 individual estate visits, a tasting of all the Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux châteaux, two consultant tastings and two négociant tastings.

There is additional reporting and tasting from Panos Kakaviatos, a long-time Bordeaux writer for Decanter who covered the St-Emilion Grand Cru Classé and dry whites, and Valeria Tension, a St-Emilion resident and current MW student who covered the Cru Bourgeois wines.

In total just over 800 wines were reviewed and scored.

Further reading from this report

• Pomerol
• St-Emilion
• Pessac-Léognan & Graves
• Dry whites
• Crus Bourgeois
• Pauillac
• St-Estèphe
• Margaux
• St-Julien
• Sauternes

Bordeaux 2025: The vintage's top wines

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What makes value so central to enjoying wine? I once opened a bottle of Petrus for my father, and at his request no less.

Yet, he broke the silence with: ‘Excellent, but it’s not very good value, is it?’

In contrast to that, there’s something inescapably appealing about a wine that grabs your attention, that provokes thought and stimulates conversation – all while leaving you with the feeling that you got more than you paid for. A value wine.

By virtue of that feeling, value wines tend to be drunk more often and are, I think, better understood as a result.

I’ve always loved the late Michael Broadbent’s tasting notes, referencing his numerous encounters with a particular wine in all sorts of settings over the years.

For most passionate amateurs, it’s the value wines – the great wines we don’t feel shy about opening – that we get to know with that sort of intimacy. They keep us coming back, vintage after vintage.

Value Bordeaux wines have never been so widely available, and the 1855 Grand Cru Classé estates have led the way.

More vintages per decade, and more châteaux per appellation, excel now than ever before, with value for money often hiding in plain sight on the secondary market and (as unfashionable as it may be to say at the moment) even en primeur.

Here is my selection of 10. Others that could easily be included here are featured elsewhere in this guide (for example, Batailley, Giscours, Lagrange and Langoa Barton).

Value wines are nourishing to the palate, mind and heart. Bordeaux is full of them.

Léoville Barton

St-Julien second growth

Léoville Barton just might be Bordeaux’s best-value wine. Particularly since 2015, the property’s increases in quality simply haven’t been matched by commensurate increases in price – in stark contrast to some of its peers.

Château Léoville Barton was established in 1826 following Hugh Barton’s purchase of plots of the Léoville vineyard a few years before and in 1826.

Barton had purchased the adjacent Château Langoa in 1821, so separate facilities have never been needed. The 50ha vineyard is divided into three main plots, currently planted with 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc.

The soil is mainly deep gravel which is purest and deepest closest to the Gironde estuary, growing sandier and shallower moving to the west. A strategy of minimal intervention in the vineyard lets the terroir do the talking and biodiversity has long been of interest.

A new winery and cellars have been in use since the 2021 vintage. Here both Léoville and Langoa Barton wines are vinified and matured.

The number of vats has doubled, allowing for the ability to pick and vinify each plot according to its own needs; in turn, the vineyard is better understood than ever before.

Work in the winery is more precise and more delicate, with pumping over and use of R-pulse decreasing as fermentation progresses, in order to avoid extracting harsh tannin (in use here since 2018, the R-pulse technique uses inert gas to stir fermenting berries, favouring a gentle extraction). This results in a broader (not shorter) drinking window.

Multi-generational excellence

What do you get for your money? Léoville Barton usually offers variations on themes of intense cassis, blackberry, pencil shavings, coals, ink, lavender and liquorice.

Powerful depth is a given; the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the grand vin’s blend has usually been a little higher than its proportion in the vineyard, but it’s Léoville Barton’s paradoxically elegant rendition of that power that makes it so engaging.

The Barton Sartorius family has had a multi-generational commitment to excellence at a fair price, with value for money now better than ever.

The 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020 can all be found in bond for £55-£60. It’s one to buy every year, with superb wines even in less glamorous vintages (such as the 2017 and 2021, each available for about £40 in bond).

Even from generally expensive vintages like 2022, prices remain reasonable at Léoville Barton – it can still be found in bond for under £60, and it is absolutely worth the small premium.

Grand-Puy-Lacoste

Pauillac fifth growth

Grand-Puy-Lacoste delivers a wine of character every year, conveying its place and vintage of origin clearly.

Quality is consistently high from this quintessential Pauillac estate, which has been shepherded by the Borie family since 1978.

Its name, Grand-Puy (roughly translated as ‘big hill’), can be a bit confusing when approaching across the plateau from Pauillac. Viewed from the west of the château, though, the abrupt 10m rise from marshy lowlands onto the plateau of Grand-Puy clarifies things.

The 60ha vineyard is planted with 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc.

Replanting is now done via massal selection (propagation from the best cuttings of a selection of existing vines) from parcels planted in the 1950s, with the influence of subterranean biodiversity on soil structure and micronutrient balance closely observed.

Between 2016 and 2018, detailed studies of the vineyard’s plots were undertaken, both to tailor viticultural practices and to better understand their trajectory of maturation across the growing season.

A new winery was completed in summer 2025, with the number of vats increased to mirror these better-defined vineyard plots, allowing for each plot to be picked at the optimal moment and vinified according to its needs.

Nowadays, most winemaking interventions are employed during the early stage of fermentation, when alcohol (a natural solvent) remains low, thus allowing for extraction with a refined tannic structure.

Mature classic

What comes of all this? One of Bordeaux’s classic wines, conveying the character of Pauillac with distinction and fresh, medium-bodied equilibrium, the wines often showing a core of cassis, blackberry and pencil shaving notes.

Both recent releases and fully mature vintages of Grand-Puy-Lacoste represent excellent value for money.

Mature classics such the 1995 and 1996 can still be purchased for around £110 in bond, while superb recent vintages such as the 2019, 2020 and 2022 are available for £35-£45 per bottle.

While exceedingly reasonable prices would be enough to recommend purchasing Grand-Puy-Lacoste en primeur, the château offers a novel format as a further incentive. A case, equivalent in volume to 12 standard bottles, but instead containing one double magnum, two magnums and four 75cl bottles.

This brilliant idea by Pierre-Antoine Borie offers the opportunity to weave Grand-Puy-Lacoste into life’s events easily – it’s perfect for those who regularly host gatherings of various sizes or who want to lay something special down for a child.

Few of these cases are released after en primeur.

Brane-Cantenac

Margaux second growth

There’s something uniquely disarming about great Margaux, with its violetty fragrance, and synthesis of intensity and delicacy.

Brane-Cantenac not only offers that Margaux archetype, but provides the best value for money in the appellation while doing it.

The 72ha vineyard is located in the Margaux commune of Cantenac. Though there are three parcels (Carabin, Le Plateau and Derrière le Parc, located on Terraces 3, 4 and 5, respectively), the crop of Le Plateau on Terrace 4 is the source of the grand vin.

Here, a half-metre of sandy gravel sits atop an admixture of 60%-70% gravel and 10%-20% clay, running several metres deep before reaching a limestone-marl substratum.

This geology confers an advantageous combination of elegance, derived from sandy gravel, and generosity of fruit, derived from the clay subsoil, which also helps to mitigate hydric stress.

I visited at harvest in September 2022 and can attest to this; despite the hot and dry conditions that had prevailed for a long period, the vineyard was in perfect health.

The overall distribution of plantings is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 5% dedicated to a mix of Carmenère, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec.

But it’s the 60-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon on Terrace 4 that, for the property’s fourth-generation proprietor Henri Lurton, is the core of Brane-Cantenac’s identity.

Attractive value

Since 2002, the grand vin’s blend has included more Cabernet Sauvignon than Merlot, and since 2012 it has included a markedly higher proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon than the distribution of plantings might suggest.

This went up to 84% in 2013 before settling into a reliable 70%-74% between 2015-2022 (and, specifically, 74% in the pristine 2022 that I watched come in, blended with 23% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Carmenère and 1% Petit Verdot).

In Brane-Cantenac, I usually find fruit in the purple and blue spectrum accented by violet, pencil shavings and coffee beans.

In bigger vintages, it can take a little time for its charm to unfold fully, but that lovability is usually obvious earlier on in less-lauded vintages like 2021, which shouldn’t be overlooked.

Despite the improvements the estate has made over the past 20 years, prices remain very reasonable en primeur and on the secondary market.

The 2022 is available for around £75 per bottle in bond, with the 2019 and 2020 looking particularly good value to lay down at £40-£50.

The 2005 and 2010, which are entering early maturity, offer attractive value at about £100 and £120, respectively.

Branaire-Ducru

St-Julien fourth growth

It can take a long time for the market to catch on when substantive changes are made at a château, even if those changes redefine its standing among its peers.

For the past 20 years, that’s exactly what has been happening at Branaire-Ducru. General manager Jean-Dominique Videau and co-owner François-Xavier Maroteaux have been quietly crafting a wonderfully elegant rendition of southern St-Julien.

Value here has been excellent from 2005 on and the 2022 has reached a new level at Branaire-Ducru.

The property’s 61ha are strung across southern St-Julien, running from the southeast to just north of the hamlet of Beychevelle, continuing along the northern edges of Châteaux Gruaud-Larose and Lagrange, ending with plots west of Château Talbot that run into St-Laurent commune.

Temperatures between the 70 distinct parcels can differ up to 2°C and the geological range includes 15 soil types, with more sand and clay near the château, well-drained gravel on Terrace 3 farther inland and thinner gravel in the west of the appellation on clay-limestone subsoil.

This diversity of terroir confers advantages and poses challenges. The key to Branaire-Ducru’s recent success has been the ability to maximise the former and adapt to the latter.

Videau keeps a close watch on the needs and maturity of each parcel, with his constant presence in the vineyard augmented by aerial photography in late summer.

Branaire-Ducru’s vineyard comprises 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc, though there have been changes in which grape varieties (and which clonal or massal selections) are planted where, and on which rootstocks.

Natural opulence and density

Completed in time for the 2022 harvest, Branaire-Ducru’s new gravity-fed winery houses 75 vats to allow each of the 70 plots to be picked at just the right time and vinified according to its needs.

What results from all of this? A wine of ‘natural opulence and density,’ as Videau says. This beguiling texture is just the vehicle for the mixed red, blue and black berry fruit that’s nearly always on show, inflected with a floral perfume.

Owing to its distribution of plots, Branaire-Ducru has a lot to say about southern St-Julien (it’s worth listening).

The superb 2022 is easily found in UK bond for £40 and those looking for an example that’s ready to drink will find the 2016 at a similar price. The 2005 and 2010, both drinking now, are available for around £55-£60.

Gruaud-Larose

St-Julien second growth

The renaissance of Château Gruaud-Larose remains a bit under the radar. Well remembered by many claret lovers for its monumental 1982 and 1986, the estate’s relative position among its peers declined through the 1990s and 2000s.

Over the past 15 or so years, that trajectory has changed definitively.

Almost all of the young and talented current team at Gruaud-Larose has been recruited over the past decade.

Replanting, fine-tuned vineyard work and vinification, and mitigation of the spoilage yeast brettanomyces, have led to a real revolution at the property.

Yet, prices haven’t kept up with quality. Recent vintages are attractive on the secondary market and en primeur prices are very fair.

The vineyard spans 82ha in one single block around the château, sitting at the eastern edge of Terrace 3. Soil studies in 2013 helped to characterise Gruaud-Larose’s three outcrops of gravel, which comprise about 75% of the vineyard, and the veins of clay running between them.

The current grape mix is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot, with Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc making up the remainder.

One of the first investments made by Jean Merlaut, owner since 1997, was to replant several plots with varieties better suited to their geology and exposure.

By 2010, those changes were starting to pay off. Since 2018, replanting has been done with a massal selection from the property’s own vines and the proportion of Gruaud-Larose comprised by Cabernet Sauvignon will reach 80% by 2030.

Vineyard work has evolved remarkably with thought-provoking adaptations to climate change, including the use of clay-based sunscreen for the grapes and retention of cover crops during the growing season, following recognition that they can reduce radiant heat around the clusters by up to 7°C.

Quality-aligned changes

The team feels that the château’s organic certification in 2022 has helped to revitalise the vineyard ecosystem and to focus closer attention on everything that happens within.

Yields are now at a more quality-aligned 35-40hl/ha compared with 50-60hl/ha 25 years ago.

Lower fermentation temperatures (usually 25°C-26°C, from up to 34°C during the 1980s-2000s) and more tailored extraction have helped to refine Gruaud’s power.

Brettanomyces has been greatly mitigated by eliminating colonies in the cellar, close monitoring during maturation, and via co-inoculation, a process of simultaneously adding the yeast and bacteria which facilitate the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations, respectively (if performed consecutively, brettanomyces can proliferate during the interval between them).

This is a cool, classic, thrillingly powerful expression of St-Julien, tempered by good manners.

The 2020 and 2022, arguably the best Gruauds since 1986, can be found for £60-£70 in bond, with the excellent 2010 no more expensive.

La Lagune

Haut-Médoc third growth

Viticulture dates back to the latter half of the 16th century at La Lagune, one of the oldest vineyards in the Médoc.

The name refers to the 80ha property’s 15 springs and a 34ha marsh adjacent to the vineyard reinforces the point.

This is the southernmost of the 1855 Médoc Grand Cru Classé properties, located between the city of Bordeaux and the Margaux appellation just to its north.

Since 2000, the château has been owned by the Frey family, who are also the proprietors of Domaine de la Chapelle in Hermitage.

The property is 110ha in total with most of its plots around the château. An outcrop of deep gravel cuts through the centre of the vineyard, bordered on both sides by sandy gravel transitioning to gravel 1m-2m above the water table. Another parcel close by contains compact gravel and sandy soils. T

he distribution of plantings corresponds to this, with 60% Cabernet Sauvignon planted on the gravelliest areas, 30% Merlot on sandy gravels and 10% Petit Verdot on a cross-section of the two.

Small plots of Cabernet Franc, Castet, Malbec, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc can also be found.

Bespoke tailoring

A massal selection was started in the mid-2010s for the property’s Petit Verdot, a project which has now extended to the other two principal varieties.

Organic certification in 2016 was quickly followed by biodynamic certification in 2021.

The winery has benefited from the Frey family’s investments, with vats tailored in number and size to the plots to be accommodated. Maturation is relatively short for a Grand Cru Classé, lasting 12-14 months in 50% new oak.

I’ve had good experiences with La Lagune as old as the 1970, tasted in 2018. Usually showing dark red fruit, mineral and leather, it’s a wine that’s easy to like.

Pertinent to this list, it’s a wine that’s also easy to afford. The 2019, which I thought represented excellent value when I tasted it at the Union des Grands Crus tasting in 2022, is widely available in UK bond for around £35.

Even older vintages from 1982-1990 can often be found priced at less than £100 and, though I have not tasted it in a decade, the 1986 then seemed like it had a long life ahead.

Talbot

St-Julien fourth growth

Vintages such as the 1982, 1985 and 1986 made Talbot a favourite for many Bordeaux lovers, with their characterfully St-Julien notes rendered in a satisfyingly fleshy and fragrant, yet often rustic, frame.

Quality softened through the 1990s-2010s – the wines didn’t have their old density or vim – but since 2015 things have been on the right track, particularly since the arrival of general manager Jean-Michel Laporte in 2018.

I’ve been hugely impressed with Talbots between 1924-1961, and I think that Laporte has his sights set on that level of quality.

The trajectory of the wines made under his aegis has certainly suggested that he’s capable of fulfilling his ambitions for the property.

Talbot’s vineyard comprises 110ha in a single block in northwestern St-Julien, 94ha of which are planted with vines.

Sitting on the western edge of Terrace 3, mainly comprised of gravel 50-70cm deep over clay and sandstone, the vineyard is planted to 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot.

A programme of replanting began in 2007, with vines now grafted to 101-14 and occasionally 3309 rootstocks, replacing the higher-yielding, drought-susceptible SO4 rootstock, which was once so common to the region.

Modulating the leaf surface area (beyond canopy height alone) has helped to optimise ripeness.

Talbot terroir

In the winery, the extraction strategy has shifted toward a lighter touch to avoid coarse tannins.

Talbot is free of brettanomyces’ influence nowadays, owing to a combination of co-inoculation and, on occasion, reverse osmosis during maturation if the brett-attuned nose of cellar master Jean-Max Drouilhet detects it.

This has allowed the current team’s wonderful work, and Talbot’s terroir, to shine through unobscured.

Since 2016, I’ve found Talbot full of reliably lush yet fresh fruit, delicately spicy, subtly minty, inflected by unsmoked tobacco, sometimes with exotic wood accents.

It’s a wonderful era for the property and it would be wise to capitalise on this iconic St-Julien while prices remain favourable.

Vintages since 2018 are widely available in UK bond for £35-£45 per bottle. This offers excellent value as these will drink well reasonably young, though they possess the substance and balance to allow them to develop interestingly over coming decades.

Among mature vintages, the 1986 is a particularly good value, available for between £140-£180.

Haut-Bages Libéral

Pauillac fifth growth

The static nature of the 1855 Médoc Classification can make it hard to notice recent changes among the classified growths, even when they’re dramatic.

Such is the case at Haut-Bages Libéral, a fifth growth Pauillac now greatly overperforming.

I’d enjoyed encounters with the château’s wines, but they generally weren’t attention-grabbing – until seeing what technical director Thomas Bontemps has been up to since 2018.

The property is comprised of 30ha in three plots which run along the northern boundaries of Châteaux Latour, Pichon Baron and Pichon Comtesse.

The easternmost, just north of the Enclos of Latour, is gravelly with a high content of clay and limestone, conferring power and facilitating water retention in periods of hydric stress.

Moving to the west, plots are more typical to the gravel-rich plateau of Bages. The distribution of plantings has been about 70% Cabernet Sauvignon (with replanting nowadays from massal selection) and 30% Merlot; though now a little bit of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are being planted – and, with an eye toward its potential in the era of climate change, a bit of Carmenère, too.

Bontemps’ goal is for the vines to self-regulate as much as possible, with the use of soft pruning techniques and avoidance of trimming in periods of vine stress, even if tendrils creep higher than the desired canopy height (1.4m, soil to top).

New farming approaches

Farming methods are a central part of owner Claire Villars-Lurton’s philosophy, and the property has been certified organic since 2019 and biodynamic since 2021.

A recent study identified 25 types of plant life per square metre among the vines, promoting micronutrient balance and soil aeration.

Four sheep help to regulate cover crops when they compete excessively with the vine.

This is one of the few estates to have plots with fruit trees interspersed among the vines, with influences on water consumption, water mobilisation, competition with the vine and biodiversity studied closely.

I am not a partisan for any particular viticultural approach, be it lutte raisonnée (where chemical treatments are only applied when absolutely necessary), organic or biodynamic, but whatever Thomas Bontemps and Claire Villars-Lurton are doing has clearly made the wines of Haut-Bages Libéral much more interesting and, in turn, excellent value.

The wines since 2018 have shown real power and depth. They are big yet balanced, full of deep raspberry and blackberry nuances and often freshened with a beautiful violet note.

Despite their excellence, vintages from 2018 on are easy to find in UK bond for £25-£30 per bottle.

Cos Labory

St-Estèphe fifth growth

In blind tastings of the five 1855 Grands Crus Classés of St-Estèphe, it’s usually obvious which two originate on the hill of Cos: Cos d’Estournel and Cos Labory often share an aromatic profile – the terroir has a real voice.

With no Audoy heirs ready to assume the reins at the château, Cos Labory was sold to Cos d’Estournel’s owner Michel Reybier in March 2023.

It is the first time since 1860 that the two properties have been united under the same ownership (their plots and wines will remain separate).

Conversations with technical director Angélique Vigouroux and her mentor Dominique Arangoïts at Cos d’Estournel have me more excited about Cos Labory than ever.

The hill of Cos is a geological layer-cake, with gravel on clay over limestone. Cos Labory has 35ha, with four of its five plots located on the gravelly top of the hill or its south, west and northern slopes, where the clay-limestone elements are closer to the surface and the exposure promotes slower ripening than among plots belonging to Cos d’Estournel.

Personality and quality

The mix of vines is currently 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, though those numbers may shift, likewise which varieties are planted in which plots following recently completed soil studies.

A massal selection is planned from some of Cos Labory’s excellent Cabernet Franc, while Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot from Cos d’Estournel’s massal selection may be planted.

Cos Labory is in the process of transitioning to organic viticulture. Vigouroux has also brought a lighter touch to vinification, with moderate fermentation temperatures (usually 26°-27°C) and pumping-over regimes adjusted such that extraction is lightened further. Like La Lagune, Cos Labory employs one of the shorter maturation periods seen among the 1855 Grands Crus Classés, usually 12-14 months in 25%-30% new oak.

Typically offering a combination of plum, pomegranate, blue/blackberries and floral potpourri, there’s a lot to like in Cos Labory.

While traditionally the property’s wines haven’t been as profound as those of its neighbour on the hill, they shouldn’t be discounted – Cos Labory offers real personality and a quality (particularly since 2010) that has surpassed its price.

The 2010 can still be found for £30 in bond, with vintages since 2016 available for between £25-£30 per bottle.

Léoville Poyferré

St-Julien second growth

The list has come full circle, back to northern St-Julien, and back to another Léoville.

A gentler touch has been the rule here, under the guidance of Sara Lecompte Cuvelier (managing director since 2018), with no reverse osmosis in the cellar, less de-leafing in the vineyard and increased viticultural precision overall.

The Cuvelier family’s holdings in St-Julien total 80ha, though 20ha are now entirely dedicated to Château Moulin Riche. Leoville Poyferré’s plots are mainly west of the village of St-Julien, running on a southeast-northwest axis.

The easternmost plots sit on rich Terrace 4 gravel, but moving progressively west, sandy gravel, sand and sandy clay are found. The distribution of plantings is 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot and 5% Cabernet Franc, though Merlot is often more highly represented in the grand vin’s blend.

Much has changed in recent years. Between 2006 and 2015, both sides of the vine were regularly de-leafed, which could exaggerate ripeness in vintages such as 2009.

A return to a more moderate de-leafing strategy and targeting moderate yields (around 45hl/ha) have helped Léoville Poyferré to retain equilibrium in hot vintages (Poyferré’s 2018 notably contrasts with its 2009, for example).

Decadently elegant

Work in the winery has favoured increasing delicacy also; reverse osmosis is no longer performed (the Merlot still often has a saignée – ‘bleeding off’ some of the juice from the skins to increase concentration).

Similarly, an R-pulse has replaced délestage (an oxygenating cap management technique also known as ‘rack and return’), perhaps refining the quality of Poyferré’s tannins.

An optical sorter has been in use since 2009 and the new winery, constructed in 2010, increased the number of vats from 35 to 57 to allow for individual plot selection.

The wines show the aromatic spectrum typical to the Léovilles, with mixed blue, black and red berries complemented by a potpourri perfume, but Poyferré tends to be the roundest, most plush of the three after a few years of bottle age.

While this differentiating characteristic can be emphasised by various interventions, the majority of its distinction from Léoville Las Cases and Léoville Barton lies in its terroir.

Take 1982 and 1990, for example, when the grape mix was similar, and different outside consultants were not yet involved – Poyferré’s place as the most decadently elegant of the three was just as assured as it is now.

While Léoville Poyferré is one of the more expensive wines on this list, it’s actually an excellent value en primeur and the secondary market is also full of value, with vintages such as 2005 and 2010 drinking well and trading at around £90 in bond.

Great value cru classé Bordeaux

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There’s been something of the stench of death around en primeur of late.

In early April, Decanter ran a story with the suitably dramatic declaration that: ‘If the Bordeaux 2025 campaign isn’t successful then en primeur is dead!’

The source of that quote was Edouard Mouiex, owner of the négociant Ets Jean-Pierre Moueix, which distributes top Bordeaux to more than 500 importers.

Or there was the analysis from Bordeaux Index in the May issue of Decanter, which likened recent campaigns to ‘a zombie franchise’ that was ‘hard to kill’.

Fine wine marketplace, Liv-ex, said in its pre-campaign report: ‘We are all rooting for the en primeur system… But, its longevity and success are by no means guaranteed.’

Doom and gloom over en primeur is nothing new. Successive years have brought repeated warnings around rising prices, a broken system, low customer sentiment, négociants on the brink of collapse, piles of unsold stock in cellars and warehouses.

It’s hard, though, to quantify how stretched exactly the system really is.

How much relief has the non-Bordeaux component really brought to négociants account books? How much stock are we actually talking about?

The warnings are dire but the hard facts are scarce. Push someone on what they actually know and they get all tight-lipped. One is merely left with the vague sense of the Damoclean but rarely a palpable threat of the sword.

At this point, all one can do is shrug and see if adding one more card will bring the whole house crashing down.

Here then are some things we do know as this new campaign begins.

Losing friends and allies

Last year’s campaign was dire. The 2024s were a reasonably solid if unspectacular set of wines offered with substantial cuts on the 2023s.

And yet, said Liv-ex, ‘several of our members [reported] declines of over 50%.’

Château Lafite Rothschild 2024 was the cheapest vintage of the first growth available on the market. In quite limited quantities too.

But, ‘it remains readily available’, added Liv-ex.

It’s not just long-term wine collectors who have felt let-down by the process, it’s the people selling the stuff too – nominally Bordeaux’s stalwart allies.

With sales in the doldrums meaning its waning importance as a headline sales event, frustration with en primeur has become more openly manifest among leading merchants in the UK and the US.

It started with little acts of rebellion – refusing to buy certain wines or openly expressing disappointment with certain offers and has grown from there.

As Liv-ex noted, last year merchants took increasingly stronger stances, ‘most cutting their purchasing significantly or buying solely on request, others publicly abandoning the system altogether’.

And it seems this is going to be the case this year as well, with reports of major merchants slashing their buying budgets and drastically limiting the number of wines they intend to offer.

Just when Bordeaux is starting to need it most, its open avenues to market are shrinking before its eyes.

Additional concerns

Then there is the overall economic situation. Looking again at last year’s market overview, things arguably felt a little bleaker.

The threat of US tariffs on European wines felt especially destabilising last year but, while they are now in place, one can at least plan around them. Even if, predicted Liv-ex, US participation will probably be limited as a result.

But there’s no doubt people are not feeling flush. There’s lethargy and caution in languid measure.

The war with Iran and subsequent standoff in the Strait of Hormuz gave financial markets a shock earlier in the year though the situation looks a little less choppy at present.

Bordeaux Index commented that: ‘Buyer sentiment remains weak and, in this era of omni-crises, only a fool would assume the outlook will surprise on the upside.’

Finding bright spots

None of the above exactly sets this year’s campaign up for a strong start. But there are a few positives to be found.

Market conditions are improving – The fine wine secondary market appears to have arrested its deep decline which means prices are less volatile.

Liv-ex noted that: ‘As the Bordeaux 500 moves its way out of (technical) oversold territory, price stability (rather than rapid rises) is likely.’

This is somewhat positive for the new vintage as it gives it a chance of offering some value relative to older wines rather than immediately looking overpriced.

It’s a good vintage – It really is. Maybe not great, and many commentators seem torn on exactly how good it really is – there are many comparisons being made to recent notable vintages such as 2022, 2019 and 2016 – but it’s certainly a BIG step up from 2024.

Despite some tough conditions, there is broad agreement that the good wines are going to be very, very drinkable.

The exchange is in collectors’ favour – if you’re not buying in euros that is. But recent strengthening of the US dollar and sterling increases the purchasing power in two core markets.

And, noted Liv-ex, if the Bank of England holds interest rates while European Central Banks cut, that purchasing power may strengthen further.

Possibility for ‘bargains’? – All things being relative of course but if prices don’t move much from last year’s heavily discounted level… there’s the chance to pick up some top wines for a song.

It’s a small vintage – Very small actually. Last year it was announced that 2024 was the smallest yield since the frost-struck 1991. That title lasted until, well, 2025.

Overall production in 2025 was well under half that of 2016 (admittedly a big vintage) and production at some estates is miniscule. As well as very limited quantities of first wines, a few estates won’t even be producing second wines at all, including Cheval Blanc and Ausone.

Now, this does raise problems for the Bordelais – see below – but as Bordeaux Index said, ‘in a market still grappling with excess supply, it may prove helpful [to prevent further over-supply].’

And from the Bordelais point of view it somewhat puts the ball back in your court. If you want it (and the price is right) you may not want to hang around.

If the price is right

Which brings us on to that ultimate thorny question of every en primeur campaign – the price.

The mantra of commentators and more vocal merchants like Liv-ex and Bordeaux Index respectively is always along the lines of ‘listen to the market’ and ‘pricing must reflect reality’.

The simple fact is that Bordeaux producers are in a bind this year. The wines are better than last year but with expectations and buyer confidence ‘muted’ there’s very little room for rises.

Anything over 15% probably risks all-out mutiny. And this is a vintage that the Bordelais need to sell.

As mentioned above it’s a very small vintage. And while small vintages can involve higher quality wines (as this one proves) as Bordeaux editor, Georgie Hindle, has been at pains to stress, there comes a point where small vintages don’t become commercially viable.

This was the case last year as well, and we’re now in a string of several small vintages in a row.

After a while, the cost of production – expensive sorting machines, labour to pick grapes, new barrels (close to €1,000 a pop now) etc. etc. – starts to add up and outweigh the return being achieved.

If you’re being hard-nosed you might shrug and say that’s the price of past mistakes. A longer-term approach to pricing strategies and building relationships would have been the sensible option, rather than chasing the quick money.

But there’s always room to make right and the first two releases of this campaign – Château Pontet-Canet and Château Batailley – suggest Bordeaux is once again willing to make amends.

Learn the hard lessons

The campaign has just begun of course. If this is going to be a quick campaign (as some think) then there is always a danger that momentum starts to see prices rise and positive early murmurs turn to disinterested grumbles by the mid-to-late point.

The Bordelais need to bear in mind that market stability is not full recovery and, said Liv-ex, ‘it is tenuous, contingent on supportive geopolitical and economic conditions and the perseverance of buyers’.

Bordeaux Index laid out a reminder that, ‘today’s buyer is better informed and more selective than ever,’ referencing the shift in buying habits to other French, Italian, and global fine wines that have taken such a chunk out of Bordeaux’s market share in recent years.

‘Bordeaux isn’t essential,’ it concluded, ‘but it can still be irresistible.’

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Take our Bordeaux en primeur quiz below

Bordeaux en primeur season is upon us, with the first releases emerging this week, and we've compiled a light-hearted, 10-question quiz related to this annual landmark in the wine calendar.

These multiple choice questions blend history with recent trends and general knowledge around en primeur.

Follow all of Decanter's in-depth Bordeaux 2025 en primeur coverage via our dedicated page. Hundreds of exclusive tasting notes are set to be published for Decanter Premium subscribers on Friday 1 May.

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Bordeaux 2025 arrives to mixed market

Bordeaux’s latest en primeur season has arrived, entering a market that’s balancing improved buyer sentiment against macroeconomic uncertainty and plentiful supplies.

Bordeaux’s 2025 vintage has garnered an early reputation as a high-quality, low-volume crop, though barrel samples of the wines were still being tasted as Decanter went to press.

The build-up to this year’s releases campaign was dominated by heightened macroeconomic uncertainty and intense scrutiny of the en primeur system, yet also better fine wine market sentiment.

Geraint Carter, of international merchant Bordeaux Index and the LiveTrade online trading platform, said: ‘There’s a bit more activity around Bordeaux than there was a year ago, and a fair chunk of that is in younger vintages – such as 2019 and 2020 – where prices have [largely] come down and they appear to represent value.’ (See table below)

At Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, the Bordeaux 500 index crept up 0.2% in value in the first quarter of 2026, although it was still down 15.3% over five years.

Sophia Gilmour, Liv-ex market analyst, described the broader market as ‘stable but precarious’.

Despite improved conditions in the past six months, she said: ‘We’ll more than likely bump along the bottom for a while as buyers rebuild their trust in prices and sellers begin to clear the surplus stock.’

Carter said there’s no shortage of young, good-quality Bordeaux. He cited 2019 as a high-quality vintage offering a potential point of comparison for the 2025-vintage campaign.

He suggested that if one assumes that the vintages are of similar quality, 2025 would have to be ‘at a serious discount to current 2019 [vintage] prices’ (see table) to be interesting from an investment perspective.

Release prices above this level may still attract collectors seeking to secure ex-château wines for future drinking pleasure, of course.

Many châteaux have already cut release prices over the past two campaigns, albeit sales for 2024-vintage wines were generally weak.

In the US, ongoing uncertainty regarding current and future tariffs were an additional stumbling block, said Shaun Bishop, CEO of California-based merchant JJ Buckley.

‘If the client doesn’t fully understand the final (delivered) price, then the en primeur release pricing is pretty much moot.’

The Bordeaux Index view

Fine wine & spirits specialist Bordeaux Index kindly sponsors this section of Decanter, and provides its view on the market here every issue. It can be found at bordeauxindex.com

Reanimating en primeur

To the cynic, Bordeaux en primeur 2025 feels like the fifth instalment of a zombie franchise that ran out of ideas in part two: hard to kill and increasingly divorced from reality.

Expectations are understandably muted, with recent campaigns having lurched between the frustrating and the frankly absurd.

And yet, there are still grounds for cautious optimism. Early indications suggest a vintage of genuine quality. In an era of ever-greater precision in vineyard management and cellar technique, it’s a welcome reminder that greatness still rests heavily on nature’s goodwill.

Encouragingly, 2025 also continues a run of smaller vintages which, in isolation, is rarely good news for producers or consumers, but in a market still grappling with excess supply, it may prove helpful.

However, all of this will be squandered if pricing is wrong. So we end with a gentle exhortation to producers: the small improvement in sentiment late last year shouldn’t be mistaken for a full recovery.

Buyer sentiment remains weak and, in this era of omni-crises, only a fool would assume the outlook will surprise to the upside. Today’s buyer is better informed and more selective than ever, and with ample back vintages available and the cost of capital rising, pricing must reflect reality.

Bordeaux isn’t essential, but it can still be irresistible. Price with realism and humility, or risk becoming the sequel nobody asked for.

Auction news and latest releases

Latour 2019 makes its debut

Château Latour 2019 (100pts, Decanter) has been one of several high-profile releases hitting the market for the first time in recent weeks.

Latour 2019 was around £2,790 (6x75cl in bond) in the UK. Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade, said the wine was among the more expensive Latour vintages on the market but below the price of Latour 2016, a fellow 100-point wine released to widespread acclaim last year.

Geraint Carter, of Bordeaux Index and the LiveTrade online trading platform, said demand for Latour 2019 began modestly but that the wine ended up selling ‘pretty well’.

Other Bordeaux releases in recent weeks have included Château d’Yquem 2023, with particularly strong scores.

Liv-ex quoted an ex-negociant price of €255-a-bottle, similar to other recent vintages, with an international release price of £3,120 (12x75cl in bond).

Fine wine diary: What's coming up

Taste Bordeaux 2025

Bordeaux’s en primeur campaign will likely dominate the releases landscape in May. In London, Berry Bros & Rudd will host a tasting of Bordeaux 2025 samples on 12 May. Prospective buyers can also read in-depth analysis and exclusive tasting notes from the vintage online via Decanter.com and Decanter Premium, and look out for a report in the next issue.

One-off Oregon wines

A 10th edition of the Willamette Valley Wine Auction will take place in May, showcasing one-of-a-kind, 2024-vintage wines from this US stronghold for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. An online auction and live event on 13 May will be followed by a trade-only sale on 14 May. For more details, see the auction website.

Christie’s in Asia

Christie’s is set to auction the fifth, and final, instalment of rare wines from the cellar of collector Joseph Lau, in Hong Kong on 22 May. It’s part of a series of sales of different collectibles, ranging from fine art to precious jewels, to mark 40 years of Christie’s auctions in Asia.

Clos Vougeot festival and auction

The 18th edition of the Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot, to be held in June, will feature charity auctions of a range of top Burgundy wines. Sotheby’s said that it will host an online auction from 15 to 30 June, and there will be a live sale and gala dinner on 28 June, the final evening of the festival.

Please note: Release schedules are subject to change.

Decanter’s Market Watch pages are published for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Wine prices may vary and they can go down as well as up. Seek independent advice where necessary and be aware that wine investment is unregulated in several markets, including the UK.

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1. One of the earliest harvests on record but the wines don’t taste like it

From the very beginning the 2025 season was in a hurry. Budbreak was nearly two weeks ahead of average, flowering flew through in mid-May under perfect dry conditions, and véraison hit in late July.

Temperatures were above the 10-year average for almost all of the growing cycle and record levels of water deficits during the ripening period explain the extremely precocious nature of the vintage.

Dry whites were picked from mid-August (Sauvignon as early as the 11th), Merlot kicked off historically early at the end of August at some estates and Cabernet followed in mid-September.

It’s one of the earliest harvests most growers can remember yet it has delivered remarkable aromatic purity and surprising freshness with overall low pHs (meaning high and fresh acidity).

2. The weather delivered the perfect mix of stress and relief

A mild winter, rapid even flowering and a long dry summer built serious concentration.

June and August were scorching (2025 sits second only to 2003 for days above 35°C), but crucially the nights stayed relatively cool, preserving acidity.

The real hero moment came at the end of August when the tail-end of Hurricane Erin brought 25–100 mm of rain depending on where you were (up to 90mm in Pauillac but around 25mm in Pomerol).

That timely shower eased the vines and, while it didn’t add any significant volume, it finished ripening the late Cabernets, prevented over-ripeness and kept alcohols surprisingly moderate (mostly 12.5–13.5 %).

Growers are calling it the ‘blessing’ and without it a style that would have been much more in keeping with that of 2022.

The 2025s also benefited from limited mildew pressure, no frost and no real risk of rot.

In short, it ticked all five classic preconditions for a great vintage – something that has happened only twice since 2021.

3. The style is concentrated yet fresh - reds, whites and sweets all shining

Tastings show reds with beautiful skin-to-juice ratios, thick-skinned small berries, high colour, ripe but refined tannins and juicy, cool fruit.

Despite all the heat and drought, they don’t have the opulence of 2022. Many people (myself included) are finding them closer in feel to 2020 and especially 2023 with some elements of both 2016 and 2019.

Cabernets are tight and compact for now, Merlots fruit-forward and supple on the best limestone/clay sites.

Dry whites are astonishingly aromatic and lively despite the earliness, with pH around 3.1 (so acidities are fresh).

Sweet wines from Sauternes and Barsac also did tremendously well: noble rot arrived cleanly after the late-August rain, giving concentration yet vibrancy.

It’s rare for every category to look this promising at once. While not universally brilliant like 2016 or 2022, quality is excellent at the top level and the best wines are genuinely exceptional.

4. Yields are tiny – the smallest since 1991

This is the fifth year in a row of low production and 2025 has taken it even further. The Gironde expects around 290 million litres (average 33.6hl/ha) – roughly half the volume of a big year like 2016.

Many classed-growth estates are reporting 26–35hl/ha, with some white plots as low as 20hl/ha.

The low volumes were partly expected from the outset because of poor floral initiation caused by the difficult 2024 growing season (small flower clusters meant fewer bunches right from the start).

On top of that, the severe hydric stress this year further reduced berry size and weight.

Add in the fact that 20,000 hectares of vineyard have been ripped up or abandoned in the past three years and you can see why supply is now extremely tight.

Quality-wise the concentration is ideal; economically it’s a real challenge for growers.

5. Market-wise, this could be one of the smartest buys in years

With production this low (it will be the smallest number of Château Margaux grand vin bottles since 1856!) and quality high, the 2025s are going to be scarce.

If opening prices rise only modestly from 2024 (which is what many négociants are hoping for) – or not at all – the 2025s will be sitting at roughly half the current secondary-market level of the legendary 2010 vintage.

While that feels like proper value, especially when the wines combine early drinkability with the potential to age, these are not easy times for the Bordeaux market or wine market in general.

In any case, with the campaign already underway (Pontet Canet announced its price on 29 April), it's going to be interesting to see it unfold.

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Top châteaux from Pauillac to Pomerol are preparing their Bordeaux 2025 en primeur release offers after the region welcomed journalists, critics and merchants from across the world for its annual barrel tastings.

This Friday (1 May), hundreds of exclusive tasting notes on Bordeaux 2025 wines will be made available to Decanter Premium subscribers, alongside in-depth analysis on the vintage and market conditions – to give readers the best possible insight.

Early signs point to a small yet thrilling Bordeaux 2025 vintage at many estates, with the best wines hitting heights that one has come to associate with years ending in ‘5’.

Pricing will inevitably be an important factor in a Bordeaux 2025 en primeur campaign that is facing persistent macroeconomic storm clouds and a wine market that is well-stocked with recent vintages.

Decanter's Bordeaux 2025 en primeur coverage

What's coming up on Friday 1 May

• Full Bordeaux 2025 vintage report with in-depth look at key appellations
• Exclusive tasting notes and scores on hundreds of Bordeaux 2025 wines
• Market insights, including expert commentary and release price analysis
• Decanter Value Index: The best first growth vintages for collectors

Setting the scene

At its best, en primeur is a great opportunity to secure ex-château stocks of brilliant wines in a variety of bottle formats – at an advantageous price.

The small size of the Bordeaux 2025 crop at many estates could enhance the sense of en primeur as a buying opportunity.

However, sales have broadly struggled in recent campaigns amid challenging market conditions. Some wines have fallen in price following en primeur release, according to several sources, including Liv-ex, a global marketplace for the trade.

Despite some relative success stories for individual names, the en primeur system has come under further scrutiny.

‘There are always some wines that “work”,’ wrote market expert Miles Davis, of Vinum Fine Wines, in his April report – setting out reasons why the merchant still backs en primeur.

However, he said a key problem to date has been ‘comparable vintages available on the secondary market at prices less than the new release’.

Many châteaux have made big efforts to cut release prices in the past two years, and pricing will inevitably be something to watch closely this time around.

With the right vintage at the right price, en primeur can be an exciting time.

It's also an opportunity to explore the latest vintage to have arrived in Bordeaux estates' cellars.

Insights gleaned during en primeur offer an unrivalled window into winemaking developments across a region that is sometimes underrated for its ability to balance tradition with dynamism.

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A venerable St-Emilion property, Château Cheval Blanc has long been considered one of the leading estates in Bordeaux.

This was recognised as far back as 1955, when it and Château Ausone were the two estates recognised as Premier Grand Cru Classé ‘A’ in the inaugural St-Emilion classification.

However, in 2021 both Cheval Blanc and Ausone excused themselves from the 2022 classification citing issues with the judging criteria; which had been a major bone of contention in 2012.

Both relinquished the top classification they had held for 66 years but it’s doubtful it has harmed either property’s standing in the eyes of collectors. Both properties are now classified as ‘St-Emilion Grand Cru’.

In recent years Cheval Blanc has deftly navigated the turbulent waters of en primeur, emerging as one of the more consistent sellers in a dwindling market.

It has fully committed itself to ‘l’agroécologie’, implementing numerous environmentally-friendly practices at the estate, such as encouraging a polyculture, practicing agroforestry and ending ploughing to reduce soil compaction.

Secondary market overview

Over its last 10 vintages, Cheval Blanc has an average Liv-ex Market Price of £4,243 (per 12x75cl) and an average score from Decanter of 97-points.

In this regard its averages compare quite favourably with the first growths of the Left Bank – which we looked at last year.

It is a key component of the Right Bank 500 index compiled by fine wine marketplace Liv-ex and its component wines have largely seen positive performances since the start of the year.

However, the fine wine secondary market as a whole has been in a severe downturn in recent years and many prices have softened from the heights they achieved in the frenzy of the lockdown-driven bull run of 2020-2022.

The index as a whole has taken a step back since it hit its peak in January 2023, declining by 30.8% to September 2025. It has rallied a little since then but is still 29.4% below where it was at its highest point.

Recent analysis published in Decanter, suggests the possibility of a limited market recovery in 2026. There were signs of stability in the second half of 2025 and prices have stabilised in many areas.

However, the recent US-Israeli military action in the Gulf, may yet send another spasm of uncertainty through a bruised market.

Iran's threat to close the Strait of Hormuz will have severe repercussions in oil markets, and that volatility usually spreads to stock markets and therefore assets.

Both the UK and US stock markets were in flux this week as oil prices spiked – though the jump was not as severe as it was after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A conflict with no foreseeable endpoint may put the brakes on even limited market recovery, but does potentially gift slow-to-act collectors an extended chance to keep scouring the secondary market for potential buying opportunities.

Cheval Blanc vintages

Looking at our chart above, we can see that there are two older vintages that weigh heavily on Cheval Blanc’s books: 2015 and 2016.

Both renowned vintages, they are priced well above the estate’s 10-year average: with a Liv-ex Market Price of £6,385 and £5,900 per case respectively.

However, although they are well reviewed wines, they are not the top-scorers according to Decanter.

Those honours go to the 2019 and 2023, which Bordeaux Editor, Georgie Hindle, both rated 99-points; the 2023 most recently at her in-bottle tasting of that vintage.

Both are currently available at considerable discounts to either the 2015 or 2016.

The 2019 was extremely well-priced on release and has gained 7.8% in value over the last five years according to Liv-ex. It currently has a Market Price of £4,850 according to Liv-ex, which is the third-highest, though still 20-30% less than the 2015 and 2016.

Therefore, the 2023 – at £3,779 per dozen – represents the best value by far, with a discount of 68% on the market price of the 2015 (97-points).

Another vintage of interest is the 2020. It has 98-points from Hindle – the same as the 2016 and 2022 vintages – but is currently available for £3,680 for a 12-bottle case, 60% less than the 2016.

According to Liv-ex, its price has also slipped -1.6% since the start of the year, which only helps to highlight the value it currently offers versus its peers.

Finally, for collectors perhaps merely seeking to get a foot in the door, the 2021 vintage presents a possible opportunity.

Rated 96-points – so just below the 10-year score average – its current case price of £2,835 is 50% below Cheval’s average price. The 2021 has also declined -5.5% in value year-to-date according to Liv-ex’s figures.

Château Cheval Blanc: Selected tasting notes

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It’s the Gironde river, where the Garonne and Dordogne meet, that splits the region in half to create its key Right Bank and Left Bank zones. And the third major zone, in between the rivers, is known as Entre-deux-Mers.

With its climate influenced by the Atlantic ocean and its soils rich in gravel, the Left Bank is known for producing wines dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. With iconic appellations including Margaux, Pauillac and Haut-Médoc, the Left Bank is widely celebrated for wines that can age gracefully for decades.

Discover 14 top-scoring Bordeaux reds from DWWA 2025

On the Right Bank, Merlot finds its finest expressions in places such as Pomerol and St-Emilion. Characterised by smooth tannins, full body and a mix of red and black fruit flavours, these wines are complex yet beautifully balanced.

At Decanter World Wine Awards 2025, the world-famous region impressed the judges, with wines receiving top medals. Two Best in Show accolades were awarded to wines from the outstanding 2022 vintage, underlining its exceptional quality.

Explore the full results from DWWA 2025 at awards.decanter.com

Best in Show

Château de Rochemorin, Pessac-Léognan 2022

97 Best in Show

£20.50-£26.95 (ib) Cru, Vin Cognito

Blend of 65% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.

This opaque black-red wine is packed with the tender-sweet black fruits and sweet floral seduction typical of the 2022 vintage; secondary complexities lie ahead. On the palate, it is soft, tender and ample, with Merlot turning on the charm. The Petit Verdot brings a little pepper and spice, and even the Cabernet in this wine is affable and unforbidding, lending grandeur and resolve to the Merlot’s charm. This is not a Pessac-Léognan that will demand extensive cellar ageing; its soft textures, balance and charm make it an ideal choice for the first decade following the vintage. Alcohol 14%

Château La Croix Younan, St-Emilion Grand Cru 2022

97 Best in Show

vignoblesyounan.com

One of the biggest treats of the two days in which the DWWA Co-Chairs met to look at our best Platinum medals this year was the chance to sit down with an entire flight of 2022 reds from Bordeaux – a magnificent vintage of untramelled generosity with a long life ahead. This St-Emilion wine, its 70% Merlot balanced by Cabernet Sauvignon, has bright, fresh scents with ample black fruits to the fore. The palate is generous and soft-textured yet shapely and long, with softly cedary complexities shading the dark plum fruits. This will be a 2022 to enjoy relatively soon, though the constitution of the vintage will ensure it holds well as it modulates towards a gentle and open-pored old age. Alc 13.5%

Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux

Château de Haut-Coulon 2023

96 Gold

US$25 Fruit of the Vine

A panorama of ripe blackberry, plum, cherry and violet with earthy, fine-grained tannins and a backdrop of clove and cedar. Generous, ample and long. Alc 14.2%

Haut-Médoc

Barton & Guestier, Château Magnol, Cru Bourgeois 2022

96 Gold

£25 Kingsland Drinks

Ripe cassis, plum and violet fragrances cloaked in a carefully constructed oak frame with succulent acidity, tight-knit tannins and a long mocha finish. Compelling. Alc 13.5%

Château de Malleret, Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel 2022

96 Gold

chateau-malleret.fr

An invigorating core of cassis, damson and Morello cherry melts into the fine toast and vanilla warmth, in harmony with the vital acidity. Long and gravelly. Alc 13.5%

Lalande-de-Pomerol

Château Grand Ormeau 2022

96 Gold

chateaugrandormeau.com

A lovely melange of raspberry and cassis fruit embracing a linear structure and finely crafted tannins. The embodiment of elegance and grace, deceptively long and gratifying. Alc 14.5%

Margaux

Château Haut Breton Larigaudière, Le Créateur Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

95 Gold

chateauhautbretonlarigaudiere.com

Lavish oak overlays cassis fruit and graphite intensity with impeccably fine-tuned tannins and vivacious acidity. One for the long haul but delicious now. Alc 13.8%

Pauillac

Château Haut de la Bécade 2022

97 Platinum

larosepauillac.com

Glossy black cherry and blueberry with a voluptuous smoky quality from lashings of new French oak. The fine pencil-shaving tannins are already starting to melt away, revealing a rewarding freshness. Alc 14%

Pessac-Léognan

Château Brown, Le Colombier de Brown 2022

97 Platinum

£25.50 Hennings

Distinctive cassis, black cherry and graphite flow over the fabulous structure, framed by finely etched tannins and tense saline acidity. Beautifully constructed, with a lingering mocha note at the end. A tour de force. Alc 14%

St-Emilion

Château Coudert, Grand Cru 2022

97 Platinum

vignobles-carles.fr

Irresistible aromas of ripe plum, blueberry and liquorice are woven into an intricate mineral core. Full of power and potential, with muscular tannins, strident acidity and a savoury oak finish. Long and sustaining. Alc 15.5%

Château Tour de Yon, Grand Cru 2022

97 Platinum

passionsaintemilion.com

A marriage of New World-style hedonism with classic Old World structure. Lavish, black cherry and blueberry, polished savoury oak that’s tightly woven into the frame. Sensational, with time on its side. Alc 14%

Château Fonplégade, Grand Cru Classé 2022

96 Gold

£31 (ib)-£60 Cru, House of Townend, Ideal Wine Co, Selection Sommelier, Waud Handford

Taut and youthful, showing toasted cedar, vanilla and cinnamon layered with notes of dark berries and mint. Structured and complete, with a black-olive finish. Alc 15%

Château Le Loup, Grand Cru 2022

96 Gold

passionsaintemilion.com

Raspberry, cherry, cassis and cocoa aromas in abundance with a smooth, rounded generosity on the palate and mineral edges to the tannins. Long and nuanced. Alc 14.5%

Château Tour Baladoz, Grand Cru Classé 2023

96 Gold

£51 Private Cellar

Elegantly built with dark damson and hedgerow fruit layered over a cleansing crushed-stone character. Filigree structure of silky tannins and keen acidity. Alc 13.9%

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Subscribe to Premium today for full access to this article and downloadable index cards for each of the first growths

Methodology

This analysis looks at the most recent vintages currently available for each of the five first growths.

For four of them, this covers the year 2014-2024. For Château Latour, which no longer participates in the en primeur system, this covers the older vintages of 2006-2016.

For each there is a graph which compares the prices (in bars) against their score (the gold dot).

The prices are provided by fine wine marketplace Liv-ex, using its ‘Market Price’ which is the ‘best listed price for a wine in the secondary market’.

Each price is also for a full case of 12 standard bottles of wine.

The scores are the most recent for each wine given by one of Decanter’s Bordeaux experts (largely though not exclusively current Bordeaux editor, Georgie Hindle).

Generally speaking, the larger the gap between a price and its score, the more interesting a particular vintage might be to a collector.

There are often times when buyers hone in on famous ‘on’ vintages and miss the fact that some producers out-perform in ‘off’ years (see box below).

This can create striking disparities where wines with the same score can be priced at wildly different levels, usually leaving those from ‘off’ vintages left significantly undervalued and underpriced.

That is the sort of oversight a canny collector can capitalise on to pick up a sought-after wine at a good price. The graphs and analysis below attempts to tease out where such instances seem to exist among recent vintages of the Bordeaux first growths.

This is not an exercise in suggesting or predicting vintages that will rise in value and does not constitute investment advice. Prices are correct as of time of publication but may change over time.

A full index card for each château can be downloaded from the link below each entry.

‘On’ and ‘Off’ vintages in Bordeaux

Referring to the market for Bordeaux wines, commentators occasionally use the term ‘on’ or ‘off’ vintages.

At it’s most basic level, ‘on’ vintages are the best, with high quality wines across the board and positive critical appraisal. As such they tend to be the most desirable vintages and will often attain the highest prices – both at release and over time in the secondary market.

Examples of recent ‘on’ vintages include: 2015, 2016, 2022

Clearly then, ‘off’ vintages are viewed as less-good-to-poor in quality with more mixed reviews. They will be less sought-after and not achieve the same level of demand, remaining (in theory at least) cheaper.

Examples of recent ‘off’ vintages include: 2017, 2021, 2024

Although a handy shorthand, the term lacks lot of nuance as no two ‘on’ or ‘off’ vintages are quite the same and estates can either underperform or outperform the vintage conditions thanks to a variety of factors as well.

Furthermore, it misses out on the sizeable strata of vintages – such as 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023 – which are not quite classifiable as either.

They might have peaks as good as any ‘on’ vintage but also a greater or larger smattering of wines that are not quite as good but certainly not poor. Where do they fit in?

Perhaps we can borrow some fielding terms from cricket to create ‘mid-off’ and ‘mid-on’ categories as well.

The opinion of many critics is that – whatever the general view of a vintage – it is more important to pay attention to the performance of individual château from year to year and not overly-generalise and certainly not dismiss wines from each vintage out-of-hand.

Château Lafite Rothschild

Average case price (12×75): £4,391

Cheapest vintage: 2024 (£3,420)

Vintages of interest: 2024, 2021, 2020

• Very even spread
• Second most-expensive first growth on average
• Most recent vintage is best buy if looking for lowest price
• 2021 is a 97-pt back vintage below £4,000 (12×75)
• 99-pt 2020 is both below the average price and cheaper than lower-rated vintages

Pre-eminent among the first growths, Château Lafite Rothschild is a regular fixture on the secondary market and its scores and prices reflect that in their correlation.

Nonetheless, there are a couple of vintages that catch the eye. As was noted when it was released en primeur this year, the 2024 wine is the cheapest vintage of Lafite currently available.

Rated 96-points by Hindle, its current market price sits comfortably below Lafite’s relatively high average price in this vintage range.

For buyers looking to get a foot in the door to an estate of this calibre, it’s an obvious place to start.

The 97-point 2021 at just below £4,000 per dozen may be another wine to investigate.

But it’s the 99-point 2020 that merits greater scrutiny here. In her in-bottle report on the vintage, Hindle called it ‘an utterly brilliant Lafite’ with ‘a sense of understated charm’.

At £4,200 per case, it’s below the estate’s average price and cheaper than several vintages rated 98-points by Decanter over the years.

Click here to download Lafite Rothschild’s index card

Château Mouton Rothschild

Average case price (12×75): £3,820

Cheapest vintage: 2024 (£2,880)

Vintages of interest: 2024, 2020, 2018

• 2024 again looks good value as the cheapest vintage
• Big surprise is that the 100-pt 2018 and 2020 are cheaper than the 99-pt 2016 and 2022

Another renowned Pauillac first growth with a sizeable and active secondary market.

Like Lafite, the 2024 wine currently represents the cheapest available vintage from this estate and offers value from that standpoint.

With a 96-point score from Hindle it’s also cheaper than the similarly-scored 2021, 2017 and 2014.

The big surprise here is that the 2018 and 2020 both carry 100-points, yet are cheaper than the 99-point 2016 and 2022.

Popular opinion would contend that the 2016 and 2022 are among Bordeaux’s greatest vintages of the last decade – though 2018 and 2020 are both strong ‘mid-on’ vintages themselves.

Might Mouton have excelled in those latter vintages but lagged in price because of the ‘lighthouse effect’ of the other two?

Even if we made all four vintages 99-points, the price disparity remains worth investigating.

Click here to download Mouton Rothschild’s index card

Château Margaux

Average case price (12×75): £4,206

Cheapest vintage: 2021 (£3,060)

Vintages of interest: 2023, 2020

• 99-pt 2020 is significantly undervalued here
• 98-pt 2023 also looks good value against wines with the same score – under £4,000 per dozen
• 96-pt 2021 as the cheapest vintage might be worth a look as a drinking case

Château Margaux’s average price is slightly skewed by the outsize price of its legendary 2015 vintage. At £7,530 per dozen, it’s one of the most expensive single wines among the first growths.

However, it has also fallen in value considerably since it hit a peak of £11,900 (12×75) in 2022.

The immediate standout here is the 2020 vintage. Rated 99-points by Hindle who called it ‘a Margaux for the ages’, it’s available at a discount to four other vintages rated slightly lower at 98-points.

Meanwhile, the 98-point 2023 vintage currently priced at £3,740 per case (12×75) sits at a discount to its similarly-rated counterparts, which are all above £4,000 and above £5,000 for a case of the 2022 – a price gap of 39%.

As with the situation outlined with Mouton above, this may well represent an instance of the wider market favouring renowned vintages rather than taking the performance of estates into account on a vintage-to-vintage basis.

Click here to download Margaux’s index card

Château Haut-Brion

Average case price (12×75): £3,434

Cheapest vintage: 2021 (£2,800)

Vintages of interest: 2023, 2021

• Cheapest of the first growths on average
• 97-pt 2021 is a steal at current price
• 98-pt 2023 likewise – cheaper than 2022 and 2018

Château Haut-Brion has long offered an excellent ‘in’ to the first growths by virtue of being the most affordable on average.

And its line-up here includes the cheapest wine of all – the 97-point 2021 at £2,800 per case (12×75).

Meanwhile, the 97-point 2016 is 50% more expensive!

There is a similar disparity between the 2023 and 2022. Both rated 98-points, the 2023 has a Market Price of £3,000, while the 2022 is 44% more expensive at £4,320.

Furthermore, Hindle said that the 2023 Haut-Brion had the chops to be ‘a potential 100-point wine’ – stay-tuned for next year’s in-bottle report to see if that comes to pass.

Both wines are currently available for below the average price for the last 10 vintages, making them extremely undervalued versus their peers and offering a potential buying opportunity for collectors.

Click here to download Haut-Brion’s index card

Château Latour

Average case price (12×75): £4,918

Cheapest vintage: 2007 (£3,790)

Vintages of interest: 2016, 2011, 2008

• Most expensive first growth on average
• 100-pt 2016 looks very undervalued versus fellow 100 2010 and even 99-pt 2009
• 97-pt 2011 looking enticing at under £4,000 per dozen
• Fairly decent consistent prices for wines around 95-pts

Since withdrawing from the en primeur process, Château Latour has been releasing stock it considers ‘ready-to-drink’ each spring.

The peak prices for its 2009 and 2010 wines – the latter currently priced at over £8,000 per case (12×75) – helps raise its overall average to be the most expensive of all the first growths.

Strip those heavy-hitters out, however, and many of its wines are priced similarly to those of its peers.

The obvious pick here is the 2016 vintage which was released earlier this year. Rated a perfect 100 by Hindle who called it a ‘monumental Latour’, it has a lot of catching up to do to catch the price of the illustrious 2010, which is nearly £3,000 more expensive.

But, at £5,600 (12×75) itself, it represents a fairly sizeable outlay in order to buy in.

Meanwhile, the 97-point 2011 looks like a bit of a sleeper. Rated by Jane Anson in 2021, she noted it was, ‘a delicious wine that stands out from many in the vintage’, with, ‘a ton of personality’.

It’s also considerably less expensive than some better-regarded vintages – a perfect example of the ‘off’ vintage effect.

Finally, among the estate’s core of 95-point wines, its the rather classic and reliable 2008 that stands out as the one of the least-expensive of all.

Click here to download Latour’s index card

Disclaimer: Decanter analysis is published for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Wine prices may vary and they can go down as well as up. Seek independent advice where necessary and be aware that wine investment is unregulated in several markets, including the UK. Prices correct at time of publication.

Related articles

• Château Latour’s ‘monumental’ 2016 vintage
• Bordeaux’s famous ‘5’ vintages
• Bordeaux 2024: Full vintage report and top-scoring wines

In stark contrast to last year’s article damning the majority of the decade milestone vintages throughout the 1960s and ’70s, everyone celebrating a decennial anniversary in 2025 is of far greater fortune… well, almost everyone.

If I were to put down some of my cold, hard sterling on the outcome of 2025 being a successful Bordeaux vintage, history tells me that that’s as safe a bet as I could make in the world of wine.

When we look back at the embarrassment of riches that the median vintage of each decade has given us, the ‘fives’ are almost always a contender for the finest vintage of the era.

Scroll down for notes and scores from Bordeaux’s famous ‘5’ vintages

2015

They say that Bordeaux no longer has good vintages and bad vintages, just easy vintages and difficult ones.

While it would be churlish to suggest that the late Paul Pontallier (pictured) of Château Margaux 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 were all ‘difficult vintages’, they were certainly less lauded than the two vintages that preceded them.

The Bordelais would have to wait no longer, as 2015 was deemed to be yet another ‘vintage of the century’.

A decade on, I would suggest that, in the pantheon of legends we’ve already witnessed this century, it sits behind the top-tier trio of 2000, 2010 and 2016 but alongside 2005 and 2009.

The vintage is both generous and homogenous across quality levels and appellations. There is a seamlessness to the best wines and an approachability that you don’t find in some of the longer-term vintages.

The balance here is wonderful and so many of these wines give a huge amount of pleasure now and will do for decades to come.

Château Margaux – 2015 the last vintage under the late, great Paul Pontallier – is the best of the firsts, while on the Right Bank, Château Lafleur is the wine of the vintage.

See the ‘10 years on’ tasting for Châteaux Margaux, Lafleur and La Conseillante as my top 2015 picks.

2005

After the limp response to the vastly inferior 2004 vintage, the Bordelais were more than ready to reap the rewards of the perfect 2005 growing season during the en primeur campaign the following spring.

When influential critic Robert Parker (pictured) posed the question ‘Is 2005 the perfect vintage?’ as the title to his initial report, the phone lines of every wine merchant in London promptly went into meltdown.

Contrary to expectation, when the great man revealed his ‘in-bottle’ scores for the 2005s the following year, only two wines were bestowed with the perfect three-digit score.

What he went on to point out was that, although he didn’t feel that the vintage had the ultimate highs, it was the most homogenous vintage of modern times, where everything excelled, from top to bottom.

Recent tastings have shown he may just have been right. 2005 rarely stands out among its peers of 2000, 2009 and 2010, but there are almost no bad wines.

The definition of a ‘great vintage’? Possibly…

It’s a vintage of generally structured and powerful wines built for the long term and wonderfully successful in all communes for the red wines. There are so many great wines it’s hard to pick favourites – but from the top flight, a recent bottle of Mouton Rothschild was just beginning to show well.

As an addition to the two below, I will stick my neck on the line for the Gruaud Larose, whose reputation in this vintage is mixed.

1995

In remarkably similar fashion to how things would unfold two decades later, the Bordelais were dealt the unfortunate hand of a difficult run of vintages in 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994; 1995 came as manna from heaven.

Unlike its successor, 1996, this vintage was equally lauded on both sides of the Gironde. Initially quite structured and ‘square’, it’s unlikely you’ll find many wines here that are charming and ethereal, but now approaching 30, they’ve resolved beautifully.

I have always loved Château Haut-Brion among the first growths, but the really special example was made across the road at La Mission Haut-Brion – a château that I believe, with age, rises to the top in both strong and weak vintages alike.

While I’m not always a huge fan of Château Lafleur in Pomerol, I think the team here really excelled in 1995, along with Château Clinet, where they made one of their finest wines ever.

1985

I sit firmly alongside former Decanter columnist, the late, great Michael Broadbent with regard to 1985.

For me it is the vintage of the decade, surpassing the tannic 1986s, the occasionally foursquare 1989s and even the legendary 1982s; due to their inherent charm and homogeneity across the whole span of estates.

The argument for 1982 over 1985 was always that the ‘highs were higher’, even if that was only true for half a dozen or so wines.

I will not contest that point, but I would argue that both Château Cheval Blanc and Château Margaux 1985 have evolved to a point that they rival many of the legendary wines of the last half-century.

In the first growths, Mouton is fabulous, as is Lafite, but Latour didn’t hit the heights it managed in other years.

From the next rung, in terms of quality, châteaux Léoville Las Cases, Pichon Longueville and Lynch-Bages are all world-beaters, Léoville Barton is the best of their decade by a long stretch, and Gruaud Larose remains an incredible bargain.

If you ever come across Château Haut-Brion Blanc 1985, it might just be the greatest white wine you ever drink… from anywhere.

I could go on, but top to bottom – even a recent magnum of Château Beaumont Haut-Médoc was glorious – these wines are fabulous.

1975

The year that saw the end of the Vietnam war was merely a busted flush in the region’s worst decade of the 20th century.

On release, the vintage was met with optimism after the damp, dank years that preceded it, but ultimately many of the wines simply don’t have the fruit required to balance out the monumental structure.

That’s not to say that the wines are undrinkable, but sadly they’re not as laudable as initially anticipated. Of course, there are exceptions.

Pomerol, in general, fared incredibly well and I would recommend taking a chance on well-stored, lower-end properties as they are often incredibly well priced.

At the top end of the scale, Petrus produced one of its greatest-ever wines. On the other side of the Gironde, Château Haut-Brion made a solid wine, but the aberration was La Mission Haut-Brion (which I suppose now shouldn’t come as a surprise), where a vinous tour de force was crafted.

A foursquare, muscular wine that has all the stuffing, it’s a contender for wine of the decade.

1965

I suppose there always has to be an outlier and, in this series, 1965 is undoubtedly it – unquestionably a contender for worst vintage of the 20th century.

One critic said of a particularly esteemed château, after initially smelling the wine: ‘Only for purely educational purposes did I put this wine in my mouth.’

A recent bottle of Château Poujeaux was, surprisingly, drinkable. Moving on…

1955

Often overshadowed by 1959 and 1961, 1955 is almost the 1985 of its day in that there’s balance and quality here from top to bottom.

At the top end, Mouton Rothschild is a real standout, as is Château Palmer in Margaux, but sadly I’m yet to encounter the legendary 1955 La Mission Haut-Brion, often touted as wine of the vintage.

A recent bottle of Château La Lagune Haut-Médoc showed that you don’t need to break the bank to experience the majesty of the vintage. Buy well-stored bottles with confidence.

1945

It would be impossible to conclude without a few words on what many deem to be the finest vintage ever produced. ‘Année de la Victoire’ is inscribed above a large ‘V’ on the label of the harvest’s most famous wine, Château Mouton Rothschild.

When the vintage was produced, it was as if the vineyards themselves were breathing a sigh of relief and speaking out against the defeated Nazi regime.

It has been many years since I have encountered the legendary ’45 Mouton, but I suspect perfectly stored bottles will still require seven or eight hours of decanting to show why it was adorned with the top spot in Decanter’s ‘Top 100 wines to try before you die’, back in 2004.

More recently, both Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Margaux have been fabulous, even with some ullage (the wine level reduced in the neck or shoulder of the bottle).

If you ever come across a wine from this singular vintage, I urge you to try it. After 80 years, it might not be in mid-season top form, but the quality, history and legend represent everything that makes Bordeaux the greatest wine region in the world.

Bordeaux’s famous ‘5s’

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We explain the differences between the Left Bank and Right Bank regions of Bordeaux, primarily focusing on their geographical location, appellations, dominant grape varieties, soil types and wine characteristics.

The Left and Right Banks are separated by the Gironde Estuary and the Dordogne and Garonne rivers. The Left Bank is known for Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blends, gravelly soils and tannic, structured wines. Key appellations include Pauillac and Margaux.

The Right Bank is known for Merlot-dominant blends, clay and limestone soils and softer, fruitier wines. Key appellations include Pomerol and St-Émilion.

We also explore wine classifications such as the 1855 Classification of the Médoc and the St-Émilion Classification, as well as the impact of vintages and new grape varieties on the regions.

Situated on the west coast of France, Bordeaux is split in two by the Gironde Estuary, which divides into the Dordogne and Garonne rivers. When looking at a map of the region, the area to the north and right of the Gironde is the Right Bank and the areas below and to the left constitute the Left Bank.

More specifically, the Right Bank is the area to the north of the Dordogne river and the Left Bank is the area directly south of the Garonne River, both of which feed into the Gironde estuary that meets the Atlantic Ocean.

The joining of these three forms a shape like an upside down ‘Y’ with the two banks on either side and the area in between known as the ‘Entre-deux-Mers’.

Left vs Right Bank Bordeaux: Appellations

The Left Bank encompasses the Médoc wine region north of Bordeaux. Its four best-known appellations – from north to south – are St-Estèphe, Pauillac, St-Julien and Margaux.

It also encompasses the Haut-Médoc, Listrac-Médoc and Moulis-en-Médoc appellations. South of Bordeaux, the Left Bank includes Pessac-Léognan and Graves, plus the (largely) sweet wine producing appellations of Sauternes and Barsac.

The Right Bank’s most famous appellations are Pomerol and St-Émilion, the latter of which has four ‘satellite’ appellations. These are Montagne-, Lussac-, Puisseguin- and St-Georges St-Émilion.

However, the Right Bank also encompasses the: Côtes de Blaye, Côtes de Bourg, Fronsac, Canon-Fronsac, Lalande-de-Pomerol, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux and Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux.

River dissections aside, there are several important distinctions between the banks, most notably the dominance of specific red grape varieties.

Left Bank Cabernet

While all of the Left Bank wines are usually blends, Cabernet Sauvignon is the dominant force here. Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc tend to play supporting roles.

As ever in the wine world, there are exceptions. Despite the prevailing narrative, there are many parts of the Médoc where Merlot is a dominant, if not the dominant component in blends. Château Clarke in Listrac-Médoc, for example, considers its soils more suited to Merlot in general. Its 2018 grand vin is 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The terroir of the Left Bank is mostly flat with gentle undulations in the landscape. Soils are largely composed of alluvial gravels with limestone underneath. That said, the composition can vary substantially from one vineyard to the next and there are large clay deposits in some appellations.

Wines typically have more tannin and a bigger overall structure than their Right Bank counterparts. Pauillac, in particular, has a reputation for producing powerful, muscular wines.

This has been particularly evident in several recent vintages such as the 2021 and 2023, where low volumes and/or poor quality Merlot crops has led to some wines being made with record high proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon.

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Right Bank Merlot

Right Bank wines are predominantly Merlot-based, with Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Petit Verdot used as blending components.

Some estates have sought to increase their use of Cabernet Franc in recent years, for its ability to deliver freshness in the glass.

For example, the proportion of Cabernet Franc in Cheval Blanc’s grand vin has been creeping up in recent vintages, now comprising around 46% of the final blend.

The most famous terroir is the large limestone plateau that surrounds the pretty town of St-Émilion itself. This is where the majority of the appellation’s great domaines can be found. The slopes of the plateau and lower-lying areas are dominated by clay soils.

In nearby Pomerol, on the outskirts of the riverside entrepôt of Libourne, there is no limestone. However, the composition of the soils is much more like that of the Left Bank with alluvial gravels and sand, albeit with much more clay mixed in. Many of the best châteaux border St-Émilion.

The Right Bank is also notable for smaller vineyard plots than on the Left Bank, most notably in Pomerol. There, estates manage an average holding of five hectares in size, while some Left Bank estates are more than 100ha.

The wines tend to be rich in fruit, softer in mouthfeel with less tannin and acid than wines from the Left Bank. As ever, however, generalisations rarely hold much water when it comes to wine.

And while there are plenty of wines that are also enjoyable when young, the best wines from the Right Bank are more than capable of ageing happily for many decades.

New varieties

In early 2021, France’s national appellation body, INAO approved the use of six new grape varieties in Bordeaux, as part of efforts to combat climate change.

However, not all appellations are able to use them, and they will most likely be used in AOC Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur, Entre-deux-Mers and the Côtes de Bordeaux wines.

Left vs Right bank Bordeaux: Vintages

Top Left and Right Bank Bordeaux châteaux can produce extremely long-lived wines, particularly in the right vintage conditions.

You may sometimes hear critics speak of a ‘Right Bank’ or ‘Left Bank’ vintage, depending upon whether conditions have favoured later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, which tends to ripen earlier.

However, the situation is often more complex, and can depend upon many variables, from soil types to cellar management. Plus, weather does not always neatly divide itself between the two banks.

Both vineyard and cellar management techniques have evolved hugely in the last two decades, leaving estates vastly better-equipped to deal with difficult years than they were before.

In a rather mixed metaphor, technology has both levelled the playing field across appellations and starkened the contrast between estates at all levels.

The greater the means of an individual château the more it will be able to grow, pick, sort and choose only the very best quality fruit in a given vintage.

As a result, the very best estates are increasingly able to transcend especially hot or wet vintage conditions.

The refrain from critics in more recent years, therefore, is to treat each château on an individual basis rather than rely on ideas of one region or appellation being superior to another.

1855 Classification

With close to 125,000 hectares of vineyards and as many as 60 separate appellations, Bordeaux is one of the most highly classified wine regions in the region.

The most famous of them all is the official 1855 Classification of the Médoc.

It’s a five-tier hierarchy, led by the five ‘first growths’ of Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Margaux, Château Haut-Brion and Château Mouton Rothschild.

Haut-Brion was included in the original 1855 list, drawn up for Emperor Napoleon III, even though it sits in Graves. Mouton was promoted to the top tier in 1973.

There are then second, third, fourth and fifth growth estates. The ever-improving quality of winemaking in Bordeaux has left some questioning how relevant this classification system really is.

Over the decades, it has often noted that while some classed growth estates have improved dramatically, others have languished.

There is no doubt that some second growths are producing wines that rival the firsts, and some third, fourth or fifth classified estates are producing better or at least more consistent wines than properties in the rung above.

Epithets such as ‘Super Second’ and ‘Flying Fifth’ have been applied to those châteaux deemed to be out-performing in this way.

However, for those châteaux that were ranked in the 1855 classification, being part of the club is clearly a point of pride and it is unlikely there will be any changes – or new admissions any time soon.

Other Left Bank classifications

Further south, Sauternes producers also got a classification system in 1855, devised alongside the one in Médoc as part of celebrations around the Exposition Universelle de Paris that year. Producers were split into first and second growths – or Premiers and Deuxièmes Crus Classés – but Château d’Yquem was given special dispensation as a ‘Premier Cru Supérieur’.

A classification for dry red and white Graves wines was devised in 1953 and finalised in 1959. It includes 16 cru classé estates, all of which sit inside the Pessac-Léognan appellation today.

The Left Bank is also home to the Cru Bourgeois classification, which was recently relaunched as a three-tier system.

St-Émilion classification

On the Right Bank, you’ll find the St-Émilion Classification, first introduced in 1955. Unlike the 1855 Classifications, this ranking is frequently reviewed, currently every 10 years.

In the 2012 list, 82 estates were divided into 64 Grand Cru Classé estates and 18 Premier Grand Cru Classé properties – themselves separated into ‘A’ and ‘B’ rankings.

Château Angélus and Château Pavie joined Ausone and Cheval Blanc as Premier Grand Cru Classé A estates in 2012. However, the fallout from the 2012 classification was extremely litigious and lasted until the most recent review in 2022.

In the interim there were various legal cases and Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus and some other estates gradually excused themselves from the classification proceedings.

Nonetheless, the 2022 classification went ahead, promoting Château Figeac to Premier Grand Cru Classé ‘A’ status alongside Pavie.

A further 12 estates were recognised as Premier Grand Cru Classé ‘B’ and 71 as Grands Crus Classés.

Beyond this, you will also see bottle labels stating ‘St-Émilion Grand Cru’, which is an appellation.

Originally published in April 2020, and updated in April 2021 and June 2024. 

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Colin Hay, a professor of political economy with a special interest in the Place de Bordeaux, considers the different ways of approaching en primeur purchasing, ahead of this year's 2021 campaign.

Buying en primeur wines is a rather strange and, arguably, arcane system of buying and selling in which the consumer purchases the wine typically in the early summer following the vintage even though it will not be bottled and delivered for a further 12-18 months.

It is, in effect, a futures market. Money changes hands and a stake in a wine is purchased before the commodity has become a finished product.

In the period between purchase and delivery the price of the wine is likely to change, giving this market (like other futures markets) a certain speculative character.

Reasons for buying en primeur wines

People buy en primeur for rather different reasons. Amongst these it is easy to differentiate between the following:

• (i) for investment (the aim being to secure a return on the outlay between the point of purchase and delivery);
• (ii) out of a sense of emotional attachment to the property or properties one is ‘backing’ by buying en primeur;
• (iii) to guarantee securing a case of a rare commodity for which demand is high and/or to guarantee securing a case in an unusual format (halves, double magnums etc.);
• (iv) to secure a wine which is ultimately for drinking at the best available price;
• (v) some presently unresolved combination of the preceding factors (‘I am almost certainly buying this wine to drink and I have an emotional attachment to the property, but it is likely to prove a sound investment anyway’).

Of these reasons arguably the second is the best – and this article has least to say to those of you whose en primeur choices fall primarily into this category. My advice, in so far as I have any for you at all, is to carry on doing what you do – and perhaps not to read any further. This article is really for the rest of us (for what it is worth, my own rationale for en primeur purchases is in fact a combination of all five).

Buying en primeur: supply and demand

Let’s perhaps begin with the third motive – the acquisition of a rare commodity whilst it is still available. This is certainly a good motive (if wine is rare, supply limited and demand high, the sensible choice is to acquire it whilst supply is at its greatest).

But for the majority of en primeur purchases this is simply not the case. Properties typically do not sell out en primeur and those that do tend to do so because they have strategically managed supply by holding back wine for subsequent release. In short, it is a myth (if, sometimes, quite a convenient one) that one needs to buy en primeur to secure a case of the wine one craves from any given vintage.

Yet there are exceptions to which we will come back to in a moment. But to understand those exceptions it is useful to consider the first and fourth motives in my list. These might not seem connected, but they are. Buying exclusively for investment and buying to secure a wine for the best price it will ever be available rely on the capacity to differentiate between those wines that will appreciate in value (because supply at the release price exceeds demand) and those that will not.

This is the holy grail of the en primeur market. A reliable mechanism for identifying what to buy does not exist.

Which Bordeaux 2019 wines sold best en primeur?

Buying en primeur wines: investment

But there are a number of things one can say about wines that have proven to be good en primeur investments.

Five factors stand out from the academic analysis of this that I and others have conducted.

1. They need to be well-backed by the critics – and, ideally and increasingly, by a range of critics.

2. They will ultimately need to be backed again by the critics once re-tasted in bottle. In order to retain their value – and hence their investment potential – a high scoring wine en primeur will need to have it score confirmed once the wine is in bottle. One-off high scoring wines en primeur tend to peak in price just before they are re-tasted.

3. Wines from up-and-coming properties are more likely to be under-priced relative to their value and to represent a better investment. Look out for properties on an upward curve in terms of the critical evaluations they have received in recent vintages but whose release prices still have yet to catch up with their new found status.

4. The case for purchase is stronger if there is a compelling story to tell about the quality trajectory of the property. Where a property has changed hands, wine-maker, consultant oenologist or, more simply, style to critical acclaim, the upward trajectory in quality would appear to be less of a one-off.

5. Scarce wines for which one needs an allocation are likely to be sure-fire investments. There are a number of wines ostensibly offered en primeur which it is practically impossible for you or I to buy if we do not have a history of buying them (an ‘allocation’ is the term typically used). Some of these are long-standing (such as Petrus, Le Pin and Lafleur in Pomerol). But a number of new cuvees (especially in Pomerol and St-Emilion) have similar characteristics (tiny properties sparing no expense to make the best wine possible). Identifying these is not always easy. But clear examples in recent years include L’If in St-Emilion and La Violette and L’Enclos Tourmaline in Pomerol.

These five points hopefully provide useful guidance in how to think about en primeur from the consumer’s perspective.

But the brutal reality is that most of us will not make money – or certainly not very much – from our en primeur purchases. That is not an argument for forgoing en primeur; but it is an argument for going into it with open eyes.

Written by Colin Hay.

Buying en primeur wines: FAQ

• How does the system work?

Every spring after the vintage, the great cru classé properties of Bordeaux produce young barrel samples from the previous year’s harvest. These are then tasted and assessed by members of the international wine trade in Bordeaux. The châteaux then release for sale a ‘tranche’ or proportion of their total production at an opening price. This is sold in strict allocation to wine brokers in Bordeaux, known as négociants. The négociants then sell the en primeur offers.

• Why does it work this way?

Mainly because it always has. Moreover, by selling to négociants, the châteaux effectively spread the risk of bad vintages, which they might otherwise be unable to sell. En primeur sales also provide the châteaux with a ready source of cash, which they would otherwise not recoup until the wine was bottled and sold. As the system stands, the négociants are more or less obliged to buy whatever the châteaux sell. If the négociants don’t buy what they are offered (in a bad year), they risk forfeiting their allocation for next year (which may be a great year). However, the system only works effectively in periods where strong world demand for the great wines of Bordeaux outstrips supply, as is currently the case.

• Is only cru classé Bordeaux sold en primeur?

No. Winemakers whose wines are not classified growths, but whose quality and price justifies a futures allocation, also offer wines in this way. In some cases this is the only way to obtain limited-production wines on release.

• Is it only Bordeaux that sells its wines as en primeur?

No, you will find en primeur offers from other wine regions around the world, including Burgundy, the Rhône Valley, Italy, California and Australia.

• How much time do you have to make your mind up to buy en primeur?

Don’t delay too long, you may miss the boat.

• When do you pay?

Consumers pay the opening price as soon as the offer is made by your merchant. They will then pay tax and duty on arrival of the wine, should they wish to withdraw it from bond.

• When do you get the wine?

Usually in spring or summer two years after the offer. Then, once you have paid the additional shipping costs and duty, you can take delivery of your precious cargo. An estimate of these costs is usually given to you when you buy your wine.

• How easy is to get what you want?

It depends on what you want to buy. Because demand is so strong for the most sought-after wines, it helps if you are a long-standing customer of a wine merchant that is offering wines en primeur. If you’re not you may have to go to the back of what could be a very long queue. However, you will have less of a problem with those wines which are more available and less expensive. In order to get some great wines, customers may have to take lesser wines, too, as part of their order.

• Complicated, isn’t it?

Yes, but there seems to be little sign of change in the offing, and the system does work

Bordeaux en primeur

Burgundy en primeur

Rhône en primeur