Bordeaux 2025 En Primeur Overview

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Vintage summary by buyer Matthew Horsley 

2025 is a vintage that defies easy summary, marked as much by its contradictions as by its successes. Broadly speaking, it is a good to very good year, with several truly outstanding wines. The finest examples show remarkable intensity – of perfume, fruit, structure and freshness – combined with lower-than-average alcohol, powdery tannins and impressive persistence on the finish. It is a vintage in which excellent wines can be found across all communes and appellations, and at every price level. However, 2025 is not uniformly great. Tannin levels are high across the board, and where they have not been properly managed the resulting wines can be austere and ungenerous. By contrast, those who have mastered their viticultural practises, harvest dates and extraction have produced genuinely breathtaking wines that offer immediate appeal yet possess the structure to age for decades.

2025 is one of the hottest and driest vintages on record, yet paradoxically the wines do not taste hot, overripe or jammy. Instead, they display lift, purity, and an attractive interplay of red and black fruit. Alcohol levels are moderate, typically half to one degree lower than in 2022, the most recent hot vintage. Pierre-Olivier Clouet of Cheval Blanc described 2025 as ‘2010 without the alcohol’ and compared the growing season to that of 1961 – one of Bordeaux’s greatest vintages.

A key issue in 2025 is yield, which averaged around 30 hl/ha. Some estates reported yields as low as 22 hl/ha (l’Évangile in Pomerol, for example), while others reached 40 hl/ha (such as Carmes Haut-Brion). This disparity is partly due to poor inflorescence in 2024, which set a low potential crop from the outset. Winter rainfall helped replenish water reserves – something lacking in 2022 – while frost and hail pressure in spring were minimal. Further rain in April topped up reserves without triggering mildew pressure, a major issue in 2024, before drought conditions took hold. With little to no rainfall for three months – aside from some mid-June showers on the left bank – the vines endured multiple heatwaves, including ten consecutive days above 40°C at Figeac in Saint-Émilion. Crucially, nights were relatively cool; Juliette Couderc of Château l’Évangile noted that this limited evapotranspiration compared to 2022. Water-retentive soils such as limestone and clay generally performed better, producing softer, sweeter tannins than free-draining sites, with those utilising cover crops to increase water-holding capacity in the soils also succeeded.

By the end of August, the drought finally broke, with up to 80mm of rain recorded in Saint-Estèphe. This helped restart ripening, as vines had partially shut down during the extreme heat, and introduced a degree of beneficial dilution, reducing potential alcohol from around 15% to more balanced levels closer to 13.5%. Nevertheless, the vast majority of red wines do not taste dilute. With minimal effect on berry size post-véraison, these rains restored balance and allowed tannins to soften during the warmer, drier conditions that followed in September.

For white wines, many producers reported 2025 as the earliest harvest on record, with picking often completed before the late-August rains. The result is rich, rounded wines with relatively high alcohol and moderate acidity. The red harvest began with merlot on the right bank towards the end of August, followed by the cabernets in mid-September.

Berry size was notably small. Pierre-Olivier Clouet reported the lowest average berry weight in 30 years, with no cabernet franc above 1g and Merlot at just 1.1g. As a result, around 2kg of grapes were required to produce 1 litre of wine – roughly double the norm. This high skin-to-juice ratio contributed to the elevated tannin levels and vivid colours seen across the vintage.

While the whites offer early drinking appeal, 2025 is very much a red-wine vintage. The reds show excellent balance and energy, and their élevage over the next 12 months will further develop the mid-palate. Tannins will soften in time, though the most structured wines will require patience before reaching their peak. We’ll do our best to highlight these in our notes with each release. 

Finally, the sweet wines of Sauternes and Barsac show pronounced noble-rot character, with rich, unctuous profiles. Although not a great vintage for white or sweet wines, and we’ve been extremely selective as a result, they should offer considerable pleasure in the short to medium term.

Top châteaux to be released by email

Please find below a provisional list of all the top châteaux we’ll be offering by email. Some wines may be added or removed subject to tasting.