Our team sampling Bordeaux’s newest vintage zooms in on key estates for investors
It’s been a good week, and we are still at it! The Bordeaux En Primeurs tastings at the region’s great chateaux never disappoint and as ever introduce their new wines to the world in spectacular settings and with great finesse!
Top tips Bordeaux 2025 En Primeurs
Key factors about the 2025 vintage gleaned from our vineyard hosts:
- 2025 is the smallest vintage since 1991, with 2024 the second smallest i.e. two consecutive years of lower supply
- 2025 wines are being compared to the outstanding high-quality 2010 vintage, which achieved one of the highest number of perfect scored 100-point wines, second only to 2009.
- Alcohol levels are lower and more in line with classic Bordeaux clarets
- Pricing may be linked to yield and therefore potentially up on 2024 wines.
Bordeaux En Primeur 2025 – getting started
This campaign, our team started in Pessac Leognan with the first day tasting the some of the appellation’s key wines at Chateaux Haut Bailly, Les Carmes Haut Brion, Domaine de Chevalier and finishing at First Growth, Chateau Haut Brion, where they also tasted the 2025 wines of sister estate, La Mission Haut Brion.
Stand-outs here were led by Haut Brion 2025, a potential target for investors subject to the critics’ ratings and release price. La Mission Haut Brion Blanc is also exceptional this year and adds to a string of great whites being produced by the estate.
Les Carmes Haut Brion has delivered another wine to watch in 2025 and was one of the estates to cope well with the extremely hot and dry conditions in this year with productivity revealed to be near its usual levels, however this was not the norm across the region.
Growing season average temperatures
| Temperature C° | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Av. (April – Sept.)
| 17.7° | 19.8° | 19.4° | 17.8° | 20.2° |
| Relative to 10 year mean | -0.8 | +1.3 | +0.9 | -0.7 | +1.7 |
Source: Gavin Quinney Bordeaux 2025 Weather & Harvest Report
Overall, Bordeaux sweltered through the hottest year since 1976 in 2025, with temperatures peaking to C42° and seven weeks without rain. Productivity has been significantly impacted with some vineyards recording yields down as much as 50%.
Sauternes, however, has benefited from these conditions, and it looks like a good year for the 2025 sweet wines.
Right Bank 2025 view so far
The team’s second day heralded great icons in St Emilion and Pomerol. Our friends at Chateau Cheval Blanc welcomed us back and we were delighted to sample their 2025.
We learned that they had been hard hit by the heat and drought and that yield is down 50%. Here too, comparisons are being made to 2010. The alcohol levels are lower at 12.7% ABV and the vintage has all the makings of a classic Cheval Blanc.
Left Bank 2025 insight
Day 3 started with a return to Pauillac’s Chateau Palmer where we were keen to see how the Cabernet-dominant Grand Vin and second wine, Alto Ego fare at this embryonic stage. Again, lower yield in 2025 is a factor with Palmer achieving 20hl / ha, the lowest levels since 2011.
However, quality is paramount and the Palmer Grand Vin and its second wine both displayed the characteristics of wines well-equipped to develop into classic clarets. We learned that a short burst of rainfall at the end of the growing season was key, without which the wines may have hit 14% ABV and above. However, the weather conditions supported optimum ripening and alcohol levels are at 13 – 13.5ABV with high intensity of fruit, tannin and acidity, great for classic Bordeaux appreciators.
Our view on Bordeaux 2025
We have been privileged to be hosted at some of the world’s most famous vineyards this week and have enjoyed sharing spectacular wines with old friends and new. We would like to thank Veronique Sanders, CEO of Chateau Haut Bailly, particularly for her time and tasting their 2016 at its ten-year stage was a highlight.
Overall, comparisons are being made to the dryer 2022 and 2010 vintages, both of which are outstanding and a good early indicator for 2025 wines. We have yet to complete our tastings and are still ‘hard at it’ here in Bordeaux but the very early signs are promising that this is a vintage for collectors and investors.
These spectacular properties are extraordinary, not just in the production of worldclass wines, but for their architecture, attention to detail, and evident very significant wealth and investment. No doubt that the very best are resourced to the hilt and able to deal with the apparent changing climate in Bordeaux remarkably well. But even so, the quest for quality does impact supply and 2025 is a year where the wines will be rarer and this is an important factor for investors.
Of course, we are yet to get the critics’ ratings and the first-stage prices on release. Early-stage rumours are prices will be higher than the 2024 releases to reflect quality and supply. How the market will receive this will be very interesting given the current sentiment and global economic conditions. Prices are rising for everything so perhaps this is to be expected.
We will be providing more information as it becomes available and our view on which wines will become targets for investment. For more information on the 2025 En Primeurs follow us on our social channels and speak to a member of our team on 0203 384 2262.