Antonio Galloni

“The best 2025s are tremendous, some of the best wines I have ever tasted.”

Antonio Galloni is positive about the quality of the 2025 vintage. For him, “It’s too soon to know where 2025 will land relative to most highly regarded recent vintages, but the finest 2025s are nothing short of thrilling”. He believes Margaux to be the star appellation, with Pauillac not far behind. On the right bank, he notes a preference for St. Émilion this year, something that we also found and highlighted in our report.

Something well worth noting from his report is that “Two thousand twenty-five is a year marked by intense heat and drought. One of the most fascinating aspects of the vintage is that alcohols are lower than normal, and quite a bit lower than the norm these days in very hot, dry years. This is especially true on the Left Bank, where many wines come in at around 13% in alcohol.” These are not the big blockbuster wines being made 15 years ago, even in a warm year alcohols are low and the wines are balanced. It’s a remarkable feat that shows just how far winemaking has come in rencent years.

Another thing he notes is that quality runs across the price points. Bordeaux is home to some of the best value fine wines on the planet, something reflected in his assertion that “While top names tend to get most of the attention this time of year, readers will find countless gems among Bordeaux’s lesser-known châteaux.” Will they be worth buying en primeur though, that is the question.

Margaux: “The most consistently brilliant appellation of the vintage. Château Margaux and Palmer are both magnificent”.

Pauillac: “Pauillac is jam-packed with great wines in 2025. There are perhaps fewer surprises than in Margaux, as most of the top wines live up to their billing”.

St Estephe: A variable crop, wtih some Chateau feeling a little light. Cos d’Estournel and Calon Segur are singled out for special praise.

Pessac: La Mission is picked out as a highlight, as well as a reinvigorated Pape Clement. Whites from Domaine de Chevalier and Pape Clement “Lead the way”.

St Emilion: “Beau-Séjour Bécot, Canon and Clos Fourtet are all exceptional. Troplong Mondot and La Gaffelière follow closely.”

Pomerol: The most inconsistent appellation for Galloni. Top wines are great, but the overall level is not up to the best years.

Top Five Scoring Wines

  1. Chateau Beau-Sejour-Becot, 98-100 points
  2. Chateau Canon, 98-100 points
  3. Chateau Margaux, 97-99 points
  4. Chateau Lafite, 97-99 points
  5. Domaine de Chevalier Blanc, 97-99 points

William Kelley, The Wine Advocate

“This is indeed a vintage of exceptional quality; and second, that it is a singular vintage that defies comparison with any recent years.”

William Kelley of The Wine Advocate picks out many of the qualities we found in this unique vintage. “Concentrated, ripe and fresh, with moderate alcohol levels (generally 12.5% to 13.5%), striking aromatics and authoritative density, the best 2025s are thrilling wines”. For him, “2025 functions as a clarifier. It brings tighter focus to the nuances of terroir, winemaking decisions and style, delivering wines of real concentration (thanks in part to historically low yields) that nevertheless remain… classically proportioned and transparent”.

He highlights the unique nature of this crop and also the great strides forward that wine makers have made in coping with the effects of seemingly ever-warmer summers. “Whereas some vintages tend to impose a strong imprint on wines from across the region, 2025 may well be the most transparent, highly differentiated Bordeaux vintage we have ever tasted. If that is partly attributable to the year itself, it also underlines the agronomic and enological progress that Bordeaux’s best producers have made over the last decade.”

Overall, it’s a very positive report, packed with great scores for wines across the price points.

William Kelley’s Top Scorers

  1. Chateau Haut Brion, 98-100 points
  2. Chateau Troplong Mondot, 98-100 points
  3. Chateau Montrose, 98-100 points
  4. Chateau Pontet Canet, 98-100 points
  5. Chateau Cheval Blanc, 98-100 points
  6. Petrus, 98-100 points
  7. Chateau Margaux, 97-100 points
  8. La Conseillante, 97-100 points

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

“The best wines have a breadth and scale of reference that is extremely impressive”

Jane Anson is slightly circumspect in her opinion. For her, the best wines are “extremely impressive”, though she does advise an element of caution. She writes, “Where the vintage will divide people is in the balance of fruit, tannins and acidity. All three are high – and in some cases the acidity outstrips the other two elements”. She’s looking forward to tasting them in bottle, a hint that the finished wines might be somewhat different to how they are showing from barrel.

The Left Bank

“Overall, as on the Left Bank, from the last decade I would place 2025 easily ahead of 2017, 2021 and 2024, and close to 2015 and 2019 in terms of potential – both vintages that I liked very much and make for excellent company.”

The Right Bank

“This is a vintage of extremes, with a number of brilliant wines that deserve a place in anyone’s collection, and others that struggle to really perform at the top of their game.”

Jane Anson’s Top Scoring Wines

  1. Petrus, 98-100 points
  2. Chateau Beausejour-Duffau-Lagarosse, 98-100 points
  3. Château Mouton Rothschild, 98-100 points
  4. Chateau Margaux, 98-100 points
  5. Chateau Haut-Bailly, 98-100 points

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Palette

“Low-yielding yet vibrant, it trades opulence for tension and energy, delivering wines that don’t weigh down—they shimmer.”

Lisa Perrotti-Brown is positive about the quality of the 2025 vintage overall. Despite the warmth, she found that “the wines defy the stereotype of a hot, dry growing season. Most sidestepped the stewed, flabby excess of such vintages, delivering bright fruit, exhilarating tension, and alcohol levels more than half a degree lower than 2022 and a full degree lower than 2018—largely without signs of underripe austerity.”

She is, however, relatively guarded as to where this stands in the overall hierarchy of modern vintages. For her, “Bordeaux 2025 is not a universally great vintage. It is a technically fascinating one—at times compelling—but it is less even than 2016, 2019, or 2022.” Perhaps then, not a vintage to buy blindly across the board, but one where some excellent wines can be found. Indeed, she gives plenty of very good scores, an encouraging sign of very good quality.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown’s Top Scoring Wines

  1. Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, 98-100 points
  2. Chateau Margaux, 98-100 points
  3. Chateau Latour, 98-100 points
  4. Chateau Canon, 98-100 points
  5. Chateau Lafleur, 98-100 points
  6. Chateau Angelus, 98-100 points
  7. Chateau Figeac, 98-100 points
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