Bordeaux 2025: New cellars, cuvées, anniversaries, winemakers and more…

It seems nothing ever stays the same for very long with a bumper list of significant infrastructure projects, white-wine innovations, ownership shifts, generational handovers and strategic vineyard refocuses all happening in Bordeaux.

New cellars and winemaking facilities

Several landmark wineries were either inaugurated or finished in time for the 2025 vintage.

Château Léoville Las Cases (St-Julien, 2nd Growth) completed its ambitious new 13,000 m² winery and cellars – spanning six floors with two underground levels – just in time for the 2025 harvest.

This is the first vintage overseen solely by Arnauld Hubert (son of Jean-Hubert) after 125 years of family ownership.

The facility features 120 vats in total, tripling the capacity for its wines, as well as a cold storage room an on-site laboratory and staff offices. It also houses the estate’s first white wine project.

Château Ducru-Beaucaillou (St-Julien, 2nd Growth) finished its new 8,000m² cellar with 80 tanks. It will receive fruit for the first time with the 2026 vintage (2025 served as the transition year).

Château Calon Ségur 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.

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).

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.

White wine momentum continues to build

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..

Ownership, management and generational changes

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).

Gerald Martinez becomes the new technical director at La Tour Carnet in Haut-Médoc.

François-Xavier Maroteaux (owner of Château Branaire-Ducru) was elected President of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux (UGCB) in February 2025, succeeding Ronan Laborde and taking the helm of the influential group of some 135 leading classified estates.

Baptiste Boissenot has now joined his father Eric Boissenot as the third generation in their renowned family consultancy business based in Lamarque in the Médoc.

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.

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.

Other notable appointments

Pichon Baron (Pauillac, AXA Millésimes): Long-time general manager 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.

Château La Lagune (Haut-Médoc, 3rd Growth): Delphine Frey is now director (stepping up amid family transitions), with Xavier Moragues (cellar master for the previous 18 months) as new technical director.

Château de Sales (Pomerol): 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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Vineyard restructurings and appellation developments

Given economic headwinds, cost of production and low yields for the past four out of five vintages, estates are now turning their attention to uprooting poor vigour vineyards, those designated solely for second wines or deciding to focus on ‘historic’ or better quality plots for their grand vins.

La Lagune returned to its historic 1855 classified surface area (down from 110ha to 75ha) and Pape Clément has re-centred production on its original plots near the château.

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

Anniversaries and milestones

The 2025 vintage coincided with impressive milestones. Château Gruaud Larose celebrated its 300th vintage.

The Lurton family marked 100 years at Château Brane-Cantenac while the Barton family reached 200 years at Château Léoville Barton.

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

And the 1855 Classification turned 170.

Château Margaux and Cos d’Estournel both completed their final year of organic conversion (certification expected 2026).

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