Notes here on sixty-nine St Emilion 2025s. Looking back at the tastings the striking thing is the consistency. This is a seriously good vintage in St Emilion. The hot and dry vintage conditions have reigned in the alcohols [more on this paradox below] and the evident freshness and structure in the wines has given so many a vital intensity. It is a fascinating vintage to compare with 2022. It doesn’t have the heavenly quality of that vintage, but that is not to damn 2025 with faint praise. If 2022 is a vintage for the heart, 2025 is very much one for the head. In that sense it is a bit like 2009 versus 2010 – but with right bank winemaking and viticultural approaches now very different from those heady, extractive days. These are classical, moreish wines, which are impeccably balanced in the main. So, 2025 is a very exciting vintage indeed on the right bank. It is also one with a lot of value to be had. This is firstly as a lot of less famous estates have made super wine. Secondly, so far many of the best properties are releasing at sensible prices that might encourage an early purchase. This is good news for those of us who got a bit burnt with the pricing of 2022. So, what are the highlights overall from the tastings?

Way back in early September the Association de Grands Crus Classés de Saint-Emilion put on a tasting high up above London at Landing Forty Two in the remarkable Leadenhall Building. The views were impressive. So were many of the wines. Ostensibly it was an opportunity to taste the joyful 2018 vintage, but each producer also offered an additional, older vintage. This was fascinating. For me it also confirmed the superlative quality of the 2016 vintage in St Emilion, but also the quality of some of the rather unsung 2017s. In fact, there were quite a few properties to my mind that performed better in ’17 than they did in ’18 – and that was no mean feat given the challenges of the frost that so badly affected the former vintage. Given that some 45 different chateau were represented at the tasting, I’m dividing my report into two parts. This one contains notes and thoughts on some twenty-four properties [and forty-seven wines], starting with Château Barde-Haut and ending with Château Franc-Mayne [essentially half of them alphabetically].

There is no doubt that 2019 is an excellent vintage in St Emilion. There are many fabulous wines displaying beautiful fruit, concentration and supple tannins. Alcohols are high – fifteen degrees is not uncommon – but many wines still retain surprising freshness. With potentially high tannin levels, the foot has been held off the gas in the cellar by many properties, showing a more nuanced approach to winemaking here than perhaps a decade ago. It shows how the heady days of over-extraction appear to be behind us in the appellation. If 2019 doesn’t quite have the exuberance of 2018, or the heavenly balance of 2016, it could be seen as a hypothetical blend of the two, or a combination of 2009 and 2010, but without the late picking and extractive practices that characterized that period.

It is always a joy tasting through a range of wines that Jean-Luc Thunevin is involved with. The famous iconoclast of St Emilion has a hand in a large range of properties on both the right and left bank in Bordeaux as a consultant. His flagship wine is his own Château Valandraud and evidently Thunevin has pulled out all the stops again in 2019. This is powerful St Emilion with wonderfully lush fruit tones and extract that is simply knockout. This year I was also struck by his juicy Clos Badon which was looks fruit packed and joyful. The white Valandraud is also worth a special mention. This is usually a remarkably intense and concentrated white. It is once again bold and weighty in 2019 and also has good zap and energy.