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Bordeaux 2025 en primeur: Pessac-Léognan & Graves reds ‘something of a revelation’

13 May 2026 By Colin Hay

db Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay continues his tour of the 2025 en primeur offerings by heading to Pessac-Léognan and the Graves, where his anxieties are largely dispelled.

When I think of the impact of climate change on the vineyards of Bordeaux, as I do more and more frequently, I worry. And, if I am honest, I worry perhaps most about Pessac-Léognan and the Graves.

True, climate change is much more than just the combination of extreme heat and extreme drought. But it is typically precisely such conditions that one conjures first when one thinks about it abstractly and prospectively. And when one does so – or at least when I do – it is the plight of Pessac-Léognan and the Graves that is the most immediate focus of my anxiety. I picture gently rolling expanses of sun-baked vineyards on well-draining gravel soils south of Bordeaux, and the insufficiently replenished water tables on which they rely below.

So, as the summer of 2025 unfolded and it seemed, not for the first time, that some of my nightmares were starting to be realised, it is perhaps unremarkable that I became more and more anxious about what I might find when it came to the en primeur tastings in April 2026 in Pessac, in Léognan and the Graves.

Guillaume Pouthier of Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion

It turns out that I was wrong, but really only in the geographical targeting of my fears.

For, yes, Bordeaux came very close to the limits of viticultural sustainability in 2025. But Pessac-Léognan and the Graves more generally were, in the end, relatively spared.

Table 1 goes some way to indicating how. It shows total rainfall volumes for a number of weather stations around the region during and immediately before the growing season.

	Pre-budburst (November-March)	Budburst to harvest (April-September)	Annual total (calendar year)
Pessac-Léognan (Canéjan)	384 (-12.5%)	399 (-1.5%)	949 (+12.4%)
Saint-Emilion	258 (-41.2%)	311 (-23.2%)	670 (-23.0%)
Pauillac	287 (-53.0%)	373 (-7.9%)	864 (+2.4%)
30-year average*	439	405	844

Table 3: Rainfall (mm) during the vintage, relative to 30-year average.

Source: https://www.infoclimat.fr/climatologie/ (*Bordeaux-Mérignac alone).

What it demonstrates is that Pessac-Léognan (and the Graves, more generally) received rather more rainfall over the winter before the vegetative cycle commenced and during the growing season than either the Médoc or the Right Bank.

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The result of that is clear to see in Table 2, which shows that overall yields held up better in Pessac-Léognan, relative to the 10-year average, than in any other appellation except Saint-Émilion.

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	10-year average	% Change
Pessac-Léognan	34.6	30.7	35.7	38.1	39.0	31.0	35.6	-12.9
Pomerol	39.8	28.9	32.3	45.2	28.4	25.9	36.6	-29.2
Saint-Émilion (GC)	36.7	27.5	41.2	40.5	36.4	34.7	37.9	-8.4
Margaux	36.3	38.6	31.3	37.7	33.1	28.8	39.2	-26.5
Saint-Julien	34.3	35.2	34.3	50.3	32.5	26.4	36.3	-27.3
Pauillac	37.4	35.1	34.8	47.1	29.5	30.2	40.2	-24.9
Saint-Estèphe	41.2	40.7	31.5	51.6	33.6	36.8	44.4	-17.1

Table 2: Average vineyard yield by appellation (hl/ha)

Source: calculated from Duanes data compiled by the CIVB Service Economie et Etudes

Thankfully, that is what we find in the wines too, at least the reds (we will return to the whites in a separate appellation profile). For while, as Table 3 shows, the yields of the leading estates were far from generous (averaging just 30 hl/ha) they had little impact on the final varietal composition of the blends, with the proportion of Merlot returning to something close to its 10-year average after the ravages of mildew in 2024.

Wine	% Merlot			% Cabernet (S & F)			Yields (hl/ha)
Wine	2023	2024	2025	2023	2024	2025	2023	2024	2025
Carmes Haut-Brion	20	23	17	80	67	83	50	24	38
Domaine de Chevalier	25	30	30	70	65	65	30	48	34
Haut Bailly	34	40	36	62	60	60	40	30	28
Haut-Brion	52	38	60	48	62	40	50	26	26
La Mission Haut-Brion	53	47	58	48	54	42	50	26	26
Pape-Clément	50	45	45	45	54	54	35	42	29
Smith Haut Lafitte	23	27	27	76	72	72	26	21	28
Average	37	36	39	61	62	59	40	31	30
				10-year appellation average				36.1	*35.6*

Table 2: Percentage of Merlot & Cabernet Franc in the grands vins and final yield (hl/ha), 2023, 2024 & 2025

The wines, then, are something of a revelation. Fresh, bright, crisp, low in alcohol and high in terroir typicity, character and, indeed, ageability.

The stars of the appellation are, as ever, Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion, very closely followed by a supremely stylish and elegant Carmes Haut-Brion.

Haut Bailly, too, is on absolutely top form and Pape Clément deserves a special mention for having produced what I regard to be the best wine I have ever tasted from the estate in 15 years of en primeur tastings.

Bouscaut and Larrivet Haut-Brion both also seem to have raised their games to an unprecedented level.