In this year’s en primeur offer from our longstanding producers Château de Beauregard, François d’Allaines, and Olivier Leflaive, we have put together a selection of delicious, engaging whites from the Mâconnais, the Côte Chalonnaise and the Côte de Beaune.
Order by midday, Tuesday 8th September
The wines
Having tasted a wide variety of 2025 white Burgundies from up and down the region in mid-May, the vintage can be characterised as both attractive and expressive, with the best wines showing good to very good concentration, ripe fruit profiles at normal alcohol levels and a seamless balance overall.
The phenolic structure of the wines is more pronounced than usual due to the small, thick-skinned grapes this year and we found many wines displayed a moreish grip, or good bitterness (‘jolie amers’), bringing a natural tension and control to the fruit, and contributing a sense of freshness and balance.
The weather: Mâconnais
2025 produced wines of lovely concentration and richness. Two factors reduced yields and so improved concentration: poor weather at flowering reduced fruit set and some mildew pressure further reduced the crop, although luckily the lower village vineyards were affected more by the mildew than the higher-elevation premiers crus. Stylistically, the wines sit between the rich 2023s and the elegant 2024s and therefore will hold huge appeal.
The weather: Côte Chalonnaise and Côte de Beaune
Winemaker Solène Panigai of Olivier Leflaive describes 2025 in the Côte Chalonnaise and Côte de Beaune as ‘pretty easy in the vineyard compared to 2024.’ While the flowering period was marked by millerandage (uneven ripening), crop losses were not as pronounced as in the Mâconnais and June did not bring the mildew attacks suffered further south. Moderate rainfall towards the end of August was important in revitalising vines suffering from the combined effects of the heatwaves in June and August and the dry conditions. Solène commented that she ‘loved the grapes picked around 25-30 August,’ which delivered harmonious balance with alcohol levels around 13%, while grapes picked before the August rainfall have led to more concentrated and structured wines.
In summary
The commonalities across the different regions are clean, healthy fruit, unimpacted by botrytis (noble rot), and small to very small berries with hard skins yielding firm structures. Our feeling overall at this early stage is this has potential to be a very good vintage for white Burgundies and the concise selection we have chosen all come highly recommended.
Toby Morrhall and Victoria Mason MW
Buyers for Burgundy