2025 Bordeaux: ‘our kind of vintage’
A small but brilliant crop makes wines that echo the great 2022
2025 is a fabulous Bordeaux vintage. Stylistically, it follows in the vein of its great recent predecessor 2022, when a hot, dry year surprised everyone by producing fresh, vital wines which married ripeness to a breathtaking sense of energy. 2025 may not be (quite) as great or homogeneous as 2022, but it beats every other vintage since 2016. 2025 is defined by its freshness, and where it most diverges from 2022 is in the more moderate levels of alcohol, typically 13% rather than 14.5%. At Durfort-Vivens, Gonzague Lurton captured this nicely when he told us that ‘2025 is a more digestif version of 2022 – our kind of vintage’. 2025s never betray a sense of the hot growing season, but are cool and composed, structured, with concentrated fruit and a mineral sense of freshness.
But yields were extremely low. They were lower than in the difficult 2024 vintage and the lowest, in fact, since 1991. 2024 suffered from excess rain and extreme mildew pressure; 1991 fell victim to a devastating frost. 2025 suffered from neither of those difficulties; there was next to no frost or hail damage, and low disease pressure. The low yields in 2025 are the result of two things. One was the very poor conditions during flowering in the preceding 2024 vintage. That led to fewer bunches developing on the vines in 2025. The other reason was the very dry growing season through 2025, which led to small, thick-skinned berries with low volumes of concentrated juice.
By mid-August 2025, in the heat and drought of the summer, winemakers were alarmed that they were heading for a vintage of jammy wines with high alcohol levels. Rain approaching harvest is rarely welcome, but in the circumstances the rains that fell at the end of August and in early September were the best thing that could have happened. They brought much needed water to parched vines and trimmed potential alcohol levels. Most 2025 Bordeaux reds clock in at around 13% alcohol. They are structured wines, with big but fruit-coated tannins that will reward (and in many cases demand) years in your cellar.
The season
The very damp 2024 Bordeaux vintage left good amounts of water in the ground, so even though winter 2024/2025 was not particularly wet, the water table entered the 2025 growing season in excellent condition. November and December were dry, in January Atlantic rains swept in. In the second half of February, the weather turned unseasonably warm, and the vines emerged from their winter hibernation with an early start to the growing season. That’s always dangerous, since if new buds have opened and a late frost strikes, it can wipe out the young crop. So many winemakers were wary of an early start to the season. A cold snap in March slowed things down again, and happily the vintage unfolded without late frost causing any issues. Budbreak took place around the third week of March, a week ahead of the usual schedule, and in dry, sunny weather.
Heavy rains fell over the Easter weekend of 19-21 April. It was an excellent time for rain, coming between budbreak and flowering, two crucial events in the cycle of the vine which can both be disrupted by rain. Although the rains put more water in the soil, the sunny conditions that followed meant mildew did not become much of an issue.
Flowering took place around 13-14 May, again in good weather, and was quick and even. That made a welcome difference from the previous vintage when cool and wet conditions had led to significant instances of coulure (a.k.a. shatter, when flowers fail to develop into grapes) and millerandage (a mix of underdeveloped and normal-sized grapes on the same bunch).
By June, hot, dry weather had set in, and the vines were showing signs of hydric stress. An element of hydric stress, which obliges the vine to focus on grape ripening rather than shooting out more foliage, is one of the markers of a great vintage.
Véraison is another crucial stage in the cycle of the vine, when grapes change colour, stop growing, and start ripening. Véraison began around 7-8 July, and was slow due to the dry conditions, until some rains fell between 19-21 July.
The first half of August was extremely hot, with some winemakers complaining of a ‘hairdryer wind’ dessicating their grapes. Old vines, whose deeper root systems can access lower water reserves, were observed to be managing the heat much better than young wines, as were wines planted in more water-retentive clay soils. Crucially, nights were much cooler, with a difference between day and night temperatures of up to twenty degrees. Diurnal variation is another key to a great vintage. White grapes intended for dry wines were harvested early, before the end of August, to ensure they preserved good levels of acidity.
At this stage in the season, many winemakers were alarmed by the potentially high alcohol levels in their concentrated red grapes, and the danger that these had already achieved sugar ripeness without yet achieving phenolic (flavour) ripeness. The rains that fell at the end of August and the start of September diluted that sugar ripeness, reining in potential alcohol levels and allowing the grapes to enjoy more hang time to conclude phenolic ripening.
The first Merlot grapes were harvested in early September, with the Cabernet brought in from mid-September. It was a fast harvest, and among the earliest on record, alongside 2022 and 2003. Beautiful conditions held throughout.
Check, check, check, check, check – and, check
The late, great Professor of Oenology Denis Dubordieu formulated five conditions for a great Bordeaux vintage. First, a quick, early, even flowering, when buds open into the flowers that later in the season will develop into grapes. Second, dry, warm weather for fruit set, when pollinated flowers begin to develop into grapes. Third, gradually increasing hydric stress over summer, which causes vines to stop vegetative growth and focus on grape ripening. Fourth, warm and sunny conditions through summer, which encourage photosynthesis and grape ripening. And fifth, a contrast between beautiful daytime weather and cool nights in the immediate run-up to harvest.
2022 and now 2025 are the only closely recent vintages in which all these conditions were fully met. Modern commentators often add a sixth condition: the absence of significant losses over the growing season to any of hail, frost or mildew. Again, 2022 and 2025 are the only two closely recent vintages which fully meet this condition.
Sorting it out
The dry conditions in the vineyards meant there were very few problems with rot or mildew through 2025. However, sorting tables at harvest were still essential, to pick out the dessicated and sunburnt grapes that could import excessively dry, hard tannins and raisined flavours.
In the winery
With a crop of small, thick-skinned grapes, colour (and tannins) arrived quickly and easily in the fermentation vats. At Feytit-Clinet, Jeremy Chasseuil told us it would have been very easy to over-extract, and he emphasized how in a vintage like 2025 it’s important to manage grape musts gently. He reduced the amount of pumpovers he used.
Yields
Yields in 2025 rarely rise above 30hl/ha (hectolitres per hectare) at any property - that’s about half what a Bordeaux producer might expect in a more average vintage. Several winemakers made the point that the two consecutive low-yield vintages of 2024 and 2025 together added up to one ‘normal’ vintage. (Although the wines of 2024 and 2025 could hardly be more different in character). Those low yields were down to two things. One was the crop of small, thick-skinned berries with low volumes of juice. The other was a hangover from the previous year: floral induction.
Floral induction
Flowering is a crucial stage in the annual cycle of the vine, when two important things happen. On the outside of a vine, buds break open into flowers. Later in the cycle, pollinated flowers will go on to develop into grapes. At the same time, inside the vine, small structures form that will go on to become the buds on the outside of the vine the following year. This is referred to as floral induction or floral initiation.
Damp, overcast weather can disrupt both these processes. In 2024, the weather in the vineyard at flowering was cool and wet. That meant that some buds on the vine did not go on to flower. It also meant that fewer proto-buds formed inside the vines, so when 2025 came round, fewer buds would emerge on the outside of the vine. The floral initiation of the previous vintage sets the ceiling on potential yields for any given vintage.
In 2025, the weather around flowering was excellent. So, the reduced number of buds flowered successfully. Also, good numbers of proto-buds formed inside the vines, meaning that many more buds emerged on the outside of the vine at budbreak in March 2026. (The 2026 vintage is looking good so far).
Commune by commune
In the Médoc in 2025, Margaux excelled with especially glossy, fruit-coated tannins – the top wines of the appellation are stunning. Pauillac and St-Julien fray a little around the edges with some dry tannins, but there are outstanding, superstar wines in both communes. In hotter vintages, St-Estèphe can lean towards the heavy, but the greater proportion of water-retentive clay in the soils here has served the commune well in 2025, with some fabulous wines that are both intense and fresh. The reds of the Graves seem to have more body and intensity than they often do. On the right-bank, Pomerol and St-Émilion both have many elegant, beautiful, compelling wines with silky tannins and generous fruit.
Dry whites and Sauternes
It’s not just great red wines – dry whites and Sauternes also excelled in 2025. Producers picked early (goodbye summer holiday) to bring in white grapes with vibrant acidity. Sauvignon Blanc grapes for dry wines were picked from the middle of August, with Sémillon grapes following shortly after. We were extremely impressed at the concentrated, energetic, aromatic dry whites we tasted. And while being a Sauternes producer can be a thankless task, these producers have a great vintage on their hands in 2025. Botrytis arrived unusually early in the vineyards of Sauternes, with the late August rains. It spread evenly and thoroughly. Picking began at the end of the September, and a spell of glorious weather at the end of October further concentrated the grapes that had been saved till the final passes through the vineyards. 2025 Sauternes are sumptuous and gloriously energetic.