A flawless run for the 2025 Bordeaux wines, both red and white, which have had an anthology vintage "whose course and outcome arouse real enthusiasm and nourish legitimate expectations" summarize the oenology researchers of the University of Bordeaux.

There is no mystery as the 2025 En Primeur week is in full swing in Bordeaux to discover the qualities of the vintage being aged: "Only careful tasting will make it possible to avoid excessive generalisations" says the 2026 vintage report by the Joint Oenology Research Unit* of the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences of the University of Bordeaux (ISVV). Without oversimplification, this vintage report confirms the place of choice of 2025 in the qualitative series of vintages in 5, because "the five conditions that make the quality of a red vintage in Bordeaux, often mentioned in our reports, namely the early and rapid nature of flowering and fruit set, the cessation of vegetative growth before veraison, A complete maturation of the different grape varieties ensured by optimal foliage functioning until the harvest and mild weather allowing each plot to be harvested at the desired level of maturity, were generally filled in 2025".

With "a year that will be remembered as a real success for the Bordeaux vineyards", the red wines are therefore of a high level of quality, with room for nuggets that stand out from the crowd: "the best reach an amazing level, which rivals the quality of the greatest vintages while preserving moderate alcohol levels, provided that excessive extraction of naturally very abundant polyphenols has been avoided". With high potential, the raw material harvested had to be vinified in a reasoned way in the cellars (adapting in particular to thick skins).

A year with red and white

While Bordeaux red wines had a high-quality vintage between summer water stress and a rapid early harvest, sweet wines were not to be outdone in this vintage: "in Sauternes, the conditions for alternating wet and dry periods, successively allowing the establishment of noble rot and the concentration of the grapes, were perfectly met in 2025," note the researchers. pointing out that "the course of the vintage also proved to be almost in line with a theoretical ideal, with grapes ripening early in a perfect state of health".

 

 

The adage of quality about five-year vintages is confirmed in Bordeaux

After difficult harvests, climatically and economically, "when it comes to taking stock of the past vintage and tasting the various resulting wines, 2025 appears to be a welcome respite, whose course and outcome arouse real enthusiasm and nourish legitimate expectations" underline the oenology researchers. Observed during the premiere presentations, this qualitative potential must now be translated commercially into the interest in the primeurs of buyers, from individuals to merchants and distributors.

As fascinating as it is thankless

"Viticulture is an activity as fascinating as it is thankless, subject to many hazards whose current climatic instability only reinforces the magnitude," says the ISVV. Similarly, the marketing campaign is facing economic and geopolitical headwinds. Until the miracle of a vintage in five?

 *: The note is co-signed by Dr. Valérie Lavigne, Professors Laurence Geny, Élodie Guittard and Axel Marchal.

Source: Vitisphere by  Alexandre Abellan