Bordeaux 2025: Cool soils beat the heat in St-Estèphe

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.

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’,

This was the first vintage that benefited from the property's new cellar as well.

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

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