Bordeaux En Primeurs 2025: Our Complete Buying Guide

Every April, the wine world descends on Bordeaux. The châteaux open their cellars, the barrel samples are poured, and the world's buyers, critics, and négociants form their verdicts on a vintage that is not yet finished. It is one of the most extraordinary rituals in fine wine — and this spring, we were there.

The Dis&Dis team attended the official Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux tastings in April 2026, visiting six châteaux across every major appellation on both the Left Bank and the Right Bank. This is our complete guide to Bordeaux En Primeurs 2025: what we tasted, what we found, and — most importantly — whether it is worth your money.

What Is En Primeurs?

En Primeurs — known in English as wine futures or barrel samples — is the system by which Bordeaux châteaux sell their wines before they are bottled. The harvest happens in autumn; the following spring, buyers taste the wine from barrel and reserve bottles at the release price. The wine is then bottled (typically 18–24 months later) and shipped.

In the case of Bordeaux 2025, that means: you taste and reserve now (spring 2026), the wine is bottled in 2027, and it arrives at your door in 2027–2028.

The rationale for buying this way has three parts. First, access — the most sought-after châteaux sell out En Primeurs and rarely appear on the secondary market at release prices. Second, price — En Primeurs prices are typically set before the market has fully formed its view, meaning genuine values can exist in great vintages. Third, investment — for collectors, the finest Bordeaux consistently appreciates in value once released and reviewed by the major critics.

The 2025 Vintage: What We Found

The headline is this: 2025 is a vintage of elegant power — and that combination is rarer than it sounds.

The growing season was shaped by a cool, wet spring that stressed some estates but ensured good canopy growth, followed by a warm, dry summer. The decisive element was what happened in August and September: a return to cooler, more classical conditions that preserved acidity and freshness, even as the summer heat had driven phenolic ripeness. Yields were reduced — 40 to 50 hectolitres per hectare — meaning fewer bottles and more concentration in the ones that exist.

The result, across the appellations we visited, was wines of genuine balance: rich but not heavy, structured but not austere, with a freshness that will sustain them for decades.

Left Bank: Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Saint-Estèphe

The Left Bank was, in our view, the most consistent part of Bordeaux in 2025. Cabernet Sauvignon — the dominant variety in the Médoc — thrived in the vintage's conditions. The gravelly, free-draining soils of Pauillac, Saint-Julien, and Saint-Estèphe handled the wet spring without difficulty, and the warm summer produced full phenolic ripeness without overripeness.

At our tasting at Château Lynch-Bages, we found a wine of real authority: concentrated dark fruit, structured tannins, and — crucially — a precision and freshness that Pauillac produces in its greatest years but not all of them. Château Léoville Barton, our Saint-Julien reference point, showed the vintage's signature restraint: composed, mineral, long. A wine built for the patient collector.

Read our detailed notes from the Left Bank tasting →

Margaux and Haut-Médoc: Elegance and Perfume

Our visit to Château Cantemerle — located in the Haut-Médoc AOC but known for a style that wine lovers describe as Margaux-like in its aromatic grace — confirmed what the vintage's cooler August promised: the southern Médoc's finest wines are wines of perfume, not power. Violet, cassis, cedar, a mineral finish that goes on long after the glass is empty.

For the Margaux and southern Haut-Médoc wines, 2025's freshness is not a limitation — it is precisely what these terroirs need. Overripe years produce plush, early-drinking wines from this part of the Médoc. Cool, fresh years produce wines that haunt you. 2025, in this respect, is excellent.

Read our detailed Margaux and Haut-Médoc notes →

Right Bank: Saint-Émilion and Pomerol

The Right Bank was the most variable part of Bordeaux in 2025. The Merlot-dominant estates saw wider variation than the Cabernet-dominant Left Bank — but the top estates delivered exceptional results.

At Château Valandraud, one of Saint-Émilion's great modern estates, we found perhaps the most complete wine of our entire week: generous fruit, silken texture, and 2025's signature freshness lifting everything into a long, precise finish. At Château Beauregard in Pomerol, the combination of clay soils and good drainage produced a wine of remarkable depth: dark fruit, truffle, iron-mineral character.

The caveat: on heavier clay soils with less drainage, 2025's warm summer produced some overrich, unbalanced wines. Selectivity is required here — which is exactly the kind of judgment we provide to clients buying through Dis&Dis.

Read our detailed Right Bank notes →

Whites and Sauternes: The Story of the Vintage

If you want to make the case for 2025 as a historically significant Bordeaux vintage, you make it with the whites. The dry whites of Pessac-Léognan — led by Domaine de Chevalier, whose barrel sample was the most electrifying wine we tasted all week — showed the vintage's cooler September conditions at their most expressive: citrus tension, white flower aromatics, rich mid-palate, extraordinary length.

For Sauternes, the autumn provided the morning mist and afternoon sun needed to develop botrytis properly. The results were promising: classic honey, apricot, and saffron, with that essential tension between richness and freshness that makes great Sauternes so extraordinary.

Read our detailed Pessac-Léognan and Sauternes notes →

Our Verdict: Should You Buy Bordeaux 2025 En Primeurs?

Yes — selectively.

The Left Bank châteaux and the top Right Bank estates are the strongest buys. The whites of Pessac-Léognan are outstanding. The Sauternes are worth considering for collectors who have not yet laid down a great sweet wine. The lesser appellations require more scrutiny.

This is always our honest answer: not "buy everything" (no vintage justifies that), and not "wait and see" (the best wines will be gone before you decide). It is: know where the quality is, buy those wines with confidence, and let us help you navigate the rest.

Read our full buying recommendations →

How to Buy Bordeaux 2025 En Primeurs Through Dis&Dis

Dis&Dis is an independent wine broker. We attend En Primeurs, taste the wines, form our views, and — for clients who wish to buy — manage the entire process from reservation to delivery at your door when the wines are released in 2027–2028.

•       You tell us what you are looking for: appellation, château, budget, or simply 'advise me'

•       We recommend specific wines and quantities based on your brief

•       You reserve at the En Primeurs release price

•       We manage everything from there — including storage options

•       When the wines are bottled and released, we arrange delivery to your door

To reserve your 2025 Bordeaux En Primeurs allocation, write to us at hello@disndis.com or reply to any of our weekly newsletters. No commitment required to enquire.

Our Bordeaux Collection

If you want to understand a château or appellation's style before committing to En Primeurs, we stock ready-to-drink Bordeaux wines from many of the same estates and communes covered in this guide, including Château Léoville Barton 2013, Château Larcis Ducasse 2017 (1er Grand Cru Classé, 95 points), Château Pavie Macquin Premier Grand Cru Classé, Château d'Armailhac 2012, and Les Jardins de Soutard 2014. Explore our full Bordeaux collection at disndis.com.