Bordeaux 2025 Vintage Report

Read on for the Bordeaux 2025 Vintage Report, written by Charlie Geoghegan, Senior Copywriter.
Photography: Jason Lowe

Warm, dry and with just enough rain when it counted: the new vintage sounds like a case study in favorable conditions. Through early tastings and detailed discussions, we look behind the headline figures to get a better understanding of Bordeaux 2025.

Vintage variation is part of Bordeaux’s charm. Some years express the region’s lighter and more elegant side; others are all about power. Many – most, really – are somewhere in between. It’s what makes Bordeaux worth collecting: no two vintages are quite the same, so the collection is never truly complete.

Some vintages are easier to love than others, though, and 2025 is unequivocally that.

From the outset, this was an almost textbook growing season. And it has resulted in a small crop of concentrated, top-quality fruit. This report is based on a March 2026 trip to Bordeaux with our Wine Director, Mark Pardoe MW – whose input and support has, as ever, been invaluable. From what we’ve seen and tasted so far, this is quite a spectacular vintage.

Winter and spring

Things got off to a good start with a mild winter. There was enough rain to build up water reserves, though not so much as to cause any problems. From early on and throughout the season, it seems that rain almost always came at the right moment and largely in the right quantities.

Bordeaux saw a gentle start to the 2025 season

This led to early budbreak; St Emilion was five or six days ahead of the 20-year average. There was no frost damage to speak of. Marielle Cazaux at La Conseillante commented how rare it is to not have frost nowadays.

There was more rain in April, around Easter. This served to further bolster reserves for the season to come, which would prove necessary. Any threat of disease pressure was easily managed, with enough time to spray as needed.

Warm and dry weather led to an early, even flowering. The potential size of one year’s crop is dictated by the conditions of the previous year, a concept known as bud fruitfulness. Because of the rainy, unsettled nature of spring 2024, the châteaux already knew that they were in for a smaller crop in 2025.

Summer

Summer was mostly warm and dry. There were heatwaves, notably from mid-June to mid-July and in early to mid-August. The highest temperature we heard of was from Pessac-Léognan, peaking at 45.9°C in August. Haut-Brion reported there were 45 days above 30°C in 2025, versus 34 in 2022.

There was mid-June rain on the Left Bank, with almost 65mm at the Haut-Brion estates in Pessac-Léognan. This “saved the vintage”, Jean-Philippe Delmas said, as the vines then had to endure another two months of drought. Véraison, when the grapes change color and start to ripen, was early and even. The Right Bank doesn’t seem to have got this rain, making for more drought conditions here than elsewhere.

The drought led to hydric restriction though few instances of outright hydric stress – where the vine doesn’t get the bare minimum of water and thus shuts down. For the most part, the dry summer was described as a good thing, with cited benefits including early ripening and contribution to tannic richness. Grapes don’t grow much further in size after véraison, so the restricted water supply contributed to the eventual small berry size.

St Emilion had a long, dry summer

Conditions were ideal for ripening grapes, though not always for people to work the vines. Jean-Philippe Delmas colorfully described how vineyard workers at Haut-Brion “became fish” in 2024, such was the onslaught of rain; only to become “scorpions” in the hot, dry conditions of 2025. His vineyard manager Grégoire Bucaille felt that “nature did 99% of the work” anyway, noting that this was a much less labour-intensive season than the previous couple. The favorable weather meant little to no problems with disease or grape ripening; there was much less need for spraying, leaf removal, tilling and green harvest.

There were nonetheless some notable efforts in the vineyard. La Conseillante used clay and zinc to protect against sunlight and UV, respectively. At Les Carmes Haut-Brion, Guillaume Pouthier reported various initiatives to deal with the hot and dry conditions, including lowering and altering the shape of the canopy; applying white clay to leaves to reduce temperatures; and using mounds of vineyard soil to make a drainage system to maximize the amount of rainwater reaching the roots.

The 2022 vintage was a frequent reference point in our discussions, though it’s worth pointing out a key difference between the two years: the temperature variance between day and night, known as diurnal range. Nights were considerably cooler than days in 2025, which was not always the case in 2022. Of recent vintages, only 2015 and 2017 had cooler nights than 2025. Jérôme Poisson at Giscours likened this to “putting your grapes in the fridge overnight”, which, he explained, preserved malic acid and aromatics.

The summer did not leave everybody unscathed. In general, vineyard areas with water-retentive soils like limestone and clay tended to avoid the worst of the drought impact. Warm gravel soils were potentially problematic. Younger vines, where the plants are less established and resilient, were also at risk.

There were reports of heat damage and subsequent crop loss at some estates, with the Haut-Brion stable discarding up to seven percent of the crop. Notably, this was the summer when Lafleur announced it was leaving the Pomerol appellation, citing administrative slowness in dealing with such climate-driven threats.

After such a hot and dry summer, a rainy reprieve came at the end of August. Montrose got 80mm of rain; Pierre Graffeuille said that “without the rain, the vintage could’ve been something extreme, with a non-Bordeaux balance”. The Right Bank didn’t get as much rain, with Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse reporting 25mm on 29th August at Beauséjour.

Jean-Philippe Delmas called the rain “very welcome” though noted that it opened the door for some botrytis – though it didn’t cause any issues for Haut-Brion or La Mission Haut-Brion. In St Emilion, sibling estate Quintus had some botrytis on its Cabernet Franc. Clos Fourtet reported that the late-season rain ensured the grapes could finish their maturation without hydric stress – which would just have concentrated the alcohol level and reduced acidity, Emmanuel de Saint-Salvy argued.

Harvest

Many estates reported either their earliest-ever harvest or their second-earliest after 2003. The Haut-Brion estates started with whites on 14th August. Jean-Philippe Delmas had to decide whether to prioritize picking the Sémillon or Sauvignon Blanc first. The former can lose acidity quickly the longer it stays on the vine, while the latter can accumulate high potential alcohol. In the end he chose the Sémillon and reported no issues. La Garde’s whites were picked a little later, between 19th-27th August, finishing just before the rain.

Reds started in late August into early September. Troplong Mondot got going on 28th August; Montrose kicked off the next day: both were new records. There were isolated cases of limited rainfall throughout early- to mid-September, though no producer reported harvest-time rain as having caused any problems. Most picking was finished by the end of September.

Château Montrose, one of many estates where 2025 was the earliest harvest ever

Berries were notably small. Les Carmes Haut-Brion’s berries were 10% lighter than average; at Montrose it was 20%. Smaller berries have less water content and therefore all the components are concentrated, Jean-Philippe Delmas explained. He also said that the concentration of the grapes preserved malic acid levels. Benjamin Laforet of Angélus explained that smaller berries make for riper skins, lower alcohol levels and lower pH.

Sorting wasn’t much of a challenge this year, by most accounts.

Yields are generally low, though it’s a mixed picture. Maximum permitted yields for red wines from the top communes vary from 46hl/ha (Pessac-Léognan) to 57hl/ha for the big four of the Médoc. We’ve heard of 2025 figures as low as 20hl/ha and as high as 40hl/ha. Gavin Quinney’s extensive weather and crop report for JancisRobinson.com cites the overall average yield for the region as 33.6hl/ha (and digs into the detail behind that figure, if you’re interested). Several producers commented that lower yields are no longer seen as inherently positive: Guillaume Pouthier, who achieved 40l/ha at Les Carmes Haut-Brion, argued that “great Bordeaux wine with typicity [needs] a good level of yield”.

In the cellar

In the winery, most châteaux opted for a light touch. Gentle extraction helped to contain the potential power of the vintage and avoid excess; most producers felt that the wines had enough inherent density and richness already.

Tannins are a fundamental structural component in fine red Bordeaux. In a year like 2025, with high levels, it was crucial to manage them effectively. Producers use a scale called the Total Polyphenol Index (IPT) to quantify tannin content; both Haut-Brion and Les Carmes Haut-Brion broke internal records.

Benjamin Laforet argued that picking dates are key: leave it too late and the grape skins accumulate too much tannin; go too early and the skin won’t be fully ripe, limiting potential complexity in the wine. Emmanuel de Saint-Salvy argued that harvest date dictates the quantity rather than quality of the tannins; even if you get your picking date right, careful extraction is key to avoiding a harsh tannic sensation in the wine.

Château Montrose, one of many estates where 2025 was the earliest harvest ever

Fermentations were low and slow, for the most part, with many producers having reduced their temperatures significantly. Châteaux including Giscours and Les Carmes Haut-Brion reported using more reductive winemaking techniques to preserve the primary-fruit character before bottling.

Bordeaux châteaux work more precisely now than ever before, treating each individual lot separately. Benjamin Laforet said that there was no fixed approach at Angélus: some tanks had a long cold maceration, others had none. The key point was to get all the color and aromas you wanted while carefully managing how much tannin you extracted. This lighter approach extended to oak use during maturation, which was generally modest, in line with overall trends in the region.

Alcohol levels were relatively modest for such a warm year, with many châteaux reporting 14% alcohol-by-volume (ABV) or lower. Guillaume Pouthier at Les Carmes Haut-Brion argued that hydric restriction early in the season led to a lower accumulation of sugar, contributing to lower ABVs. He also reported that he picked his grand vin at 14% potential alcohol, but his use of whole-bunch fermentation reduced it to 13%.

The wines

Of what we’ve tasted so far, the wines have richness and ripeness, with plenty of density and depth, but they’re also very well balanced, with palpable acidity and freshness.

Many samples showed a brightness, lift and energy that you don’t always get with a warm vintage. Indeed, the wines seem to have more natural acidity than the 2022s; some producers reported notably low pH levels, which are related to more pronounced acidity. This may be down to both the small berry size and the consequent concentration effect; and the cool summer nights preserving the acidity.

These are deeply colored reds with beautifully pure and juicy fruit. The best showed both red and black fruit character, though never tipped over into the cooked or stewed profile that you might expect of a vintage borne out of such conditions. There are considerable tannins, with weight and power behind them. But once picking dates and work in the cellar were thoughtful, those tannins are ripe and fine, with some demonstrating a pleasant chalky edge which contributes further to a sensation of lift and refreshment.

Tannins like this will take some time to resolve, and the wines will stand up to long-term aging, but these were not difficult samples to taste. Some were fleshier, others silkier, but behind the structural frame there were plenty of beautifully ripe fruit and floral aromas. This is all driven with energy and zip, too. An early observation is that these wines are perhaps a little brighter and more transparent, less densely packed and opaque, than the 2022s were at this point.

Bordeaux 2025 at a glance

• Warm and dry with just enough rainfall at key moments
• An early season leading to earliest-ever harvest for some châteaux
• A small crop with smaller-than-usual berries, giving extra concentration
• Spectacular red wines with richness, ripeness and natural acidity
• A balanced vintage of approachable, joyful wines that can also age