2025, a top vintage with five key points for Bordeaux

n Bordeaux, the “2025 vintage is promising to be remarkable. Overall, it is well structured with moderate acidity and one of the highest tannin potentials of the past few decades”, sums up consultant winemaker David Pernet of Sovivins Conseils in his benchmarking report on the current vintage. “After the uphill battle in 2024 [Ed. when rainfall posed an almost constant threat], 2025 may well prove to be a walk in the park where every stage of the vintage occurred in excellent conditions, paving the way for remarkable quality standards”.

Ultimately, “the profile of the fruit is generating a lot of enthusiasm and quality expectations on a par with the finest vintages ending in five”, with the understanding that “balancing aromatic vibrancy with tannin strength management is vital to defining the style of this ‘big five’, and is a real challenge for this great vintage to be successful”.

The white wines are described as “very rich and remain very well-balanced despite the very hot temperatures in August. Their pH was not pushed upwards by the late rainfall and their main downside will be their rarity”.

Yields have indeed fallen short this year. This is surprising considering that in the 2025 season “very good flowering and fruit set partially offset the low fertility of the shoots (due to a disastrous spring in 2024). However, on drying soils (mainly gravel), the historically small berries led to very low potential yields”, adds Pernet.

Another noteworthy feature this year is that 2025 “is the earliest vintage since at least 1989”.