A look back at a week of En Primeur tastings across the vineyards
En Primeur Week 2025 has now drawn to a close. Over several days, the DIVA Bordeaux sales team, alongside clients, travelled between the Left and Right Banks, tasting the new vintage, engaging directly with château representatives, and forming their own perspective on this particularly distinctive year.
Tastings, institutional gatherings, exceptional moments: a reflection on a demanding week, and a vintage that leaves no one indifferent.
A 2025 vintage balancing freshness and maturity
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage is already emerging as a singular year. Shaped by a warm, dry climate, it has nonetheless produced wines of remarkable balance, underpinned by an unexpected freshness.
The year was defined by four key stages, typical of great Bordeaux vintages:
- A steady winter and spring, ensuring even flowering;
- An especially hot and dry summer, with nearly 90 consecutive days without rainfall;
- Ideal, precise and homogeneous ripening;
- Timely rainfall in late August and early September, bringing balance and freshness.
These conditions created significant water stress, reducing berry size and yields (among the lowest seen in recent decades). At the same time, sugar accumulation remained naturally moderate, resulting in restrained alcohol levels (around 13.5%) — a notable feature for such a sun-driven vintage.
Precise, balanced wines with remarkable clarity
After tasting more than 240 wines across the region, a clear trend has emerged: the 2025 vintage stands out for its precision and harmony.
The leading red wines from both banks display:
- Bright, expressive aromatics;
- Fine, seamlessly integrated tannins;
- A savoury profile supported by structuring freshness.
Cabernet varieties play a central role, bringing structure and elegance — the hallmark of Bordeaux’s finest terroirs.
Dry whites show expressive profiles dominated by fruit, with broader textures and notable aromatic intensity.
In Sauternes, conditions allowed for consistent development of noble rot, producing wines of great purity and remarkable brilliance.
Beyond the tastings, En Primeur week is, above all, an immersion in the Bordeaux ecosystem. Our sales team, fully engaged in the field, was able to exchange directly with partner estates and guide clients in their understanding of the vintage.
This active presence in the vineyards reflects a strong conviction: true knowledge of wine comes from direct experience, as close as possible to its origin.
Key moments throughout the week
A journey through time with the Académie du Vin de Bordeaux
During the Académie du Vin de Bordeaux’s En Primeur dinner, tastings took on a historical dimension. An exceptional vertical of vintages ending in “6”, from 1916 to 2016, brought together 77 wines in a prestigious setting, offering a rare insight into the evolution of Bordeaux’s great wines.
Closing evening at Château Ducru-Beaucaillou
La Commanderie du Bontemps y faisait son grand retour, réunissant 750 invités autour d’un dîner d’exception, célébrant à la fois l’histoire du lieu et l’inauguration de nouveaux chais gravitaires après plus de dix ans de vision portée par Bruno-Eugène Borie.
Un moment rare, à l’image de cette semaine : intense, exigeant, et profondément ancré dans la culture des grands vins.
2025 will stand as a singular vintage, difficult to compare and even harder to categorise. Limited in volume, remarkable in quality, and driven by a freshness and clarity that defy the climatic context. A Bordeaux vintage that moves against the trend of recent solar years — and one that is likely to capture the attention of global markets without delay.
