A GREAT VINTAGE

From more than 1,000 Bordeaux 2025 en primeur samples, JAMES SUCKLING and his tasting team have unearthed some exemplary wines, each defined by a unique purity and tension that sets them apart from recent vintages.

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There is always a distinct sense of excitement when leaving Bordeaux each spring, after tasting more than 1,000 barrel samples of the latest vintages.

This feeling was especially resonant on a flight back to Hong Kong following a two-week trip with two editors and a videographer from my team. The 2025 vintage in Bordeaux made some exemplary wines with unique purity and tension that are hard to find with recent vintages. These energetic, young vintages with moderate alcohol levels and fresh acidity are a sharp contrast against the ripeness in the wines produced during hot growing seasons of late. 2025 is indeed different.

The best 2025 Bordeaux we rated are so outstanding that you would be tempted to drink the barrel samples on the spot. In my 43 years of tasting young, unfinished Bordeaux, I have rarely encountered a vintage with such immediate appeal, especially not from recent years.

Granted, the vintage is not a universal success. Many of the wines we rated showed slightly aggressive tannins or other flaws such as overextraction, too much wood or even dilution. The latter was the case with lesser-known wines from smaller appellations that lacked the resources to navigate current challenges. The financial crisis in Bordeaux is well documented, with empty fields where vines used to grow, abandoned vineyards left unpruned and neglected wineries.

Yet, my eight potential 100-pointers and 15 wines rated 98-99 points tell the story for this vintage. Three of the 15 were dry whites, including the Domaine de Chevalier Pessac-Léognan Blanc 2025, Château Cos d’Estournel Bordeaux Blanc 2025 and Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte Pessac-Léognan Blanc 2025. Nine of the 23 wines that rated between 98 and 100 points were from Saint-Émilion or Pomerol while five were from Pessac-Léognan and three from Pauillac.