2025 Bordeaux

2025 Bordeaux. Another superb vintage ending in “5” !

I’ve just returned from a very busy week in Bordeaux tasting the 2025’s. Overall this a very exciting vintage and very unique to boot. The story was the same at every Chateau. After a mild winter that replenished groundwater, spring arrived early and dry, setting the stage for rapid budburst and an unusually uniform flowering. Summer brought record temperatures and multiple heatwaves  particularly in August pushing vines to their limits, with little rainfall to relieve the stress. Yet unlike some hot vintages, cool nights offsetting scorching days, helped preserve remarkable freshness in the grapes. Timely rains at the end of August kick-started blocked vines, reduced potential alcohol, and triggered one of the earliest harvests on record. The result was tiny, concentrated berries with thick skins and ripe tannins,  yielding the smallest crop since 1991, roughly half the volume of 2016 yet the quality is exceptional.

Tasting this vintage was not easy. Not because of any lack of quality, but because the lower alcohols and unusual growing conditions gave terroir and cellar work their moment to truly shine. More so than a vintage like 2022, where the sheer power of the year was the dominant voice, 2025 allowed individual châteaux to express their house style with remarkable clarity. The estate, the winemaker, and the soil all had something to say… and for once, you could hear every word.

The first “big” release was Pontet Canet (at the same price as the 2019). And expect most of the famous wines to come out later this month in to June.  We also have three of my top St. Emilion favorites in the value sector out- I loved Laroque (this just keeps getting better and better and gives you a sense of how well the limestone terroir handled this vintage), Tour St. Christophe (a great TSC this year!) and La Tour Figeac (most underrated estate in all of Bordeaux?)

-Phil Bernstein