Nothing to complain about here! Pauillac has made an impressive set of wines in 2025. All the wines tasted at the UGCB in Bordeaux back in April looked very good indeed and had all the elements you’d expect. There is plenty of purity and freshness but also lots of density and extract too. The picks at the top-quality level were outstanding efforts from Château Lynch-Bages and Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. Château Duhart Milon is laser focused and Château Batailley looks like great value. Château Clerc Milon has made attractive, complex Pauillac and Château Haut-Batailley is layered and fresh. Again, these are all wines that will need a certain amount of time in bottle, but 2025 is a very good vintage indeed for the wines of Pauillac.

Going through my notes you can easily see the patterns. Colour, minerality, intensity, structure, tannin, freshness and classicism are all descriptors that would lead the 2025 word cloud. Overall, it is a consistent vintage when taken together for the reds. Yes, there is some variation but generally the wines had a lot in common. It is an exciting vintage for sure. And there is a distinct style – 2025 reds are typically concentrated, intense, mineral wines with evident structures, fresh fruit qualities and plenty of tannin. Early drinking doesn’t spring to mind in many cases. As I said in my first thoughts, there are also a few wines at the lesser levels that feel a bit dry and puckering, where the phenolics were not ripe owing to the heat and drought of the growing season, and where the selection wasn’t as strict. But these are the exceptions. For the whites, I tasted less comprehensively. Generally, these were better than I expected given vintage conditions which on paper may not have favoured them. I will look at Sauternes and Barsac later. So far, early release prices for the reds have been competitive and encouraging, especially given the amount of recent Bordeaux on the market cheaper than initial release prices. You should certainly consider buying a fair bit of 2025 on a qualitative level. But if you do so now you want to believe you are paying less than you will later. I think this was only last true with 2019 en primeur pricing. So, fingers crossed the prices are right for 2025 and that you’ve enough space in the cellar [or can afford some storage for a few years]. If so, what where the standouts?

I don’t mean to stick the boot in to 2021. It’s always a bit glib to cast off an entire vintage, especially given the effort the vignerons make year in, year out. The real problem for the 2021 reds is that they sit amid a sea of much better Bordeaux at comparable prices. Unless you find 2021s priced well below better recent vintages [2022, 2019 & 2018], 2021 is not a terribly appealing purchase right now for the reds. It is also a heterogeneous vintage. As I said in my earlier post, quite a few of the red wines tasted at the MW Institute’s Annual Bordeaux tasting in November 2025 finished a bit short, often showing some rusticity to the tannins. While there are many genuine successes, there are also quite a few misfires. A number also seem to have retreated in bottle too, shutting down such that the fruit has dipped and the structure remains exposed, with noticeable acidity and tannin on the palate.

2019 is a wonderful vintage in Pauillac. Whilst Château Latour, Château Mouton Rothschild and Château Grand Puy Lacoste were missing from the MW Institutes line-up, the range included most of the other top properties. Château Lafite Rothschild was sublime. It had terrific purity, precise blackcurrant fruit profiles and wonderful balance. This quality was also mirrored in two epic wines from the Pichons. If Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande fractionally topped Château Pichon Baron in early primeurs tastings, then maybe Baron is now fractionally head by a whisker, but that is more to do with how they are currently drinking. Both are show-stoppers, and both must surely rank amongst the very top wines of the vintage. Château Lynch-Bages is full-throttle but currently a lot rawer and needs another three of four years [it will age well for decades]. Château Duhart Milon has made classic Pauillac along with Château Batailley, and Château Clerc-Milon looks to be one of the best wines here in the last decade. It has great purity and balance.