Latest news
Week 2, 4-7 May: EXPANSION
The ‘Primeurs 2025’ campaign is expanding this week with the release of around twenty dry, sweet and red wines from both banks of the Garonne, including both Petit Crus and Grand Crus:
• Bordeaux sweet white : Clos Haut Peyraguey, Coutet, Doisy Daëne, Rayne Vigneau, Guiraud
• Left bank / Graves / Médoc : du Retout, Clos Floridène
• Pessac-Léognan red : Haut Bergey, Larrivet Haut Brion, Pape Clément
• Margaux : Malescot Saint-Exupéry
• Saint-Julien : ---
• Pauillac : Lacoste Borie
• Saint-Estèphe : ---
• Pomerol : ---
• Saint-Émilion : Fombrauge, Petit Gravet Aîné, Clos Saint Julien
On the pricing front. The trend set in motion last week by Pontet Canet – namely that 2025 prices will be similar (identical or up by a minimal amount <10%) to those of 2024 – is continuing. In these circumstances, we cannot emphasise enough the remarkable value for money offered by these 2025 Primeurs.
WhatsApp. As volumes are particularly low for 2025 (roughly half a harvest for dry white and red wines), we have set up a WhatsApp group to keep you updated in real time on the various releases. There you will find a summary of prices, changes compared to 2024, our comments, the most significant news... Notifications are disabled by default so as not to disturb you, but if you wish to be notified of each release, you can enable them using the ‘bell’ icon (top right of the WhatsApp page).
Here is an invitation to follow the Bordeaux - Primeurs 2025 sur WhatsApp.
—————————————————
Bordeaux 2025
Antonio Galloni's view
The first to make his move this year, Antonio Galloni (Vinous) has just released his ranking and comments on the 2025 Bordeaux wines, covering the nearly 700 (!) 2025 Bordeaux wines he tasted during April.
Firstly, he notes that « After a problematic 2024 vintage, Bordeaux is bouncing back with the 2025s. It is too early to know where 2025 will stand in relation to the most renowned recent vintages, but the best 2025s are quite simply thrilling ».
13 wines occupy the top three spots in his 2025 rankings:
• 98-100/100. Beau-Séjour Bécot, Canon
• 97-99/100. Domaine de Chevalier (white)
La Mission Haut-Brion rouge, Margaux, Lafite-Rothschild
L'If, La Gaffelière, Troplong-Mondot
• 96-99/100. Cos d'Estournel, Ducru Beaucaillou
Cheval Blanc, Valandraud
Here are his favourites by appellation:
• Pessac-Léognan white. « Domaine de Chevalier and Pape Clément White lead the way; with Smith Haut Lafitte not too far behind »
• Pessac-Léognan red. « La Mission Haut-Brion is fabulous. Les Carmes Haut Brion continues to impress »
• Margaux. « Château Margaux and Palmer are both magnificent, but there are so many wines that are just behind »
• Saint-Julien. « Ducru-Beaucaillou is exceptional. I expect it will be one of the wines of the vintage »
• Pauillac. « Pauillac is jam-packed with great wines in 2025. Lafite-Rothschild and Pontet-Canet are especially compelling »
• Saint-Estèphe. « Cos d’Estournel is magnificent. Calon Ségur is also very fine »
• Pomerol. « La Conseillante and Petrus are especially elegant »
• Saint-Émilion. « Beau-Séjour Bécot, Canon and Clos Fourtet are all exceptional. Troplong Mondot and La Gaffelière follow closely »
By clicking on the wines currently on sale, you will find Antonio Galloni’s full ratings and comments (we will add those of Neal Martin (Vinous), Michel Bettane (En Magnum), Jacques Dupont (Le Point) and La Revue du Vin de France as they are published).
—————————————————
Week 1, 27–30 April: KICK-OFF
• Bordeaux sweet white : ---
• Left bank / Graves / Médoc : Petit Manou, Clos Manou
• Pessac-Léognan red : ---
• Margaux : ---
• Saint-Julien : ---
• Pauillac : Pontet-Canet
———
Bordeaux 2025: prices
For white wines, it is easy to predict that the châteaux will maintain prices at roughly the same level as last year:• dry whites, currently in favour, have a growing market but also increasing production – and therefore competition – (2025 is the first year of the new ‘Médoc blanc’ AOP).
• sweet whites have traditionally kept their prices unchanged and are unlikely to deviate from this trend this year, satisfied with a harvest of good quality and quantity in 2025.
On the other hand, several factors are leading red wine producers to conflicting pricing assumptions:
• Inflationary considerations
- the high quality of the wines (soon to be highlighted by critics) placing 2025 above 2024 or even 2023,
- the small size of the harvest, practically half that of a normal vintage.
• deflationary considerations
- an unfavourable national and international environment with prospects that are uncertain to say the least,
- a luxury goods market in contraction across all continents (except Africa),
- an overall decline in demand for red wines in Western countries,
- significant stock levels among the main distributors (wine merchants, importers, wholesalers, etc.).
In these context, it seems reasonable to us to envisage the following for the ‘2025 Primeurs’, compared with last year’s ‘2024 Primeurs’ prices:
- a moderate (single-digit) price increase for the 20 (maximum) statutory Bordeaux labels that are subject to consistent international demand. In this case, the price of the ‘2025 En Primeur’ wines will remain lower than that of the ‘2023 En Primeur’ wines,
- price stability (2025=2024) for the vast majority of classified growths. In this case, given the genuine quality of the wines, the ‘2025 En Primeur’ wines will represent excellent value for money.
As the first significant premier cru to release its 2025 vintage, the launch (29 April) of Château Pontet-Canet, with a symbolic price increase of 2.8%, bodes well and, in our view, sets an exemplary precedent for all forthcoming classified growths. To be continued...
—————————————————