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Bordeaux 2025 en primeur: Saint-Émilion ‘terroir turned out to be crucial’

11 May 2026 By Colin Hay

db Bordeaux correspondent Colin Hay crosses the Pont d’Aquitaine to start his tour of the Right Bank’s 2025 en primeur offerings in Saint-Émilion, home to many of the vintage’s star turns.

In a vintage in which generalisations don’t really apply there is more than the usual occupational hazard in penning an appellation profile of Saint-Émilion. For it is, of course, a vast and diverse appellation with over 4,000 hectares of grand cru vineyards alone in 2025 (in comparison, say, to Margaux’s 1,500 and Pomerol’s 770). It is also arrayed over a rich tapestry of terroirs of rather varying qualities and, not less significantly, differing capacities to cope with the climatic challenges thrown their way.

Of course, heterogeneity is hardly new to Saint-Émilion. We tend to think of it as coming from three sources: first, the sheer size of the appellation; second, the qualitative range and diversity of its terroirs (notably their respective capacities to respond to the climatic conditions they face); and, third, its stylistic diversity.

All were important in 2025. But of the three, it is the second and third that are perhaps the most interesting. Variation in the type and quality of terroir turned out to be crucial. It did so both in the sense that this vintage, more than most (though not unlike 2024 before it), is something of a terroir-amplifier and, no less significantly, that the capacity of limestone and clay-over-limestone terroirs of the plateau and côteaux to continue to supply water to the plant in periods of hydric stress was crucial. The rather more precocious terroirs – those adjoining the plateau of Pomerol and those on the slopes of Saint-Émilion with a southern exposition – suffered much more under the relentless heat and drought of the summer. But they in turn suffered less than the flat expanse of primarily sandy terroirs towards the river.

Conversely, stylistic variations, which might well have been a major factor a decade ago were much less significant in 2025, certainly among the leading properties. For while this was definitely not a vintage for over-extraction nor over-exposure to toasty oak, the new classicism that now pervades Saint-Émilion has always regarded both as the sins of an increasingly bygone era. Where they are present they are obvious, the wines angular, brutal and dry on the finish. But they are (thankfully) very rare indeed, certainly among the classed growths. It is notable here that all of the grands cru classés employ a wine consultant these days and have done so now for a number of vintages.

Table 1 shows the composition of the grands vins from a number of the leading estates (chosen, invariably, on the basis of access to the data) and the final yields from which they were made in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Wine	% Merlot			% Cabernet Franc			Yields (hl/ha)
Wine	2023	2024	2025	2023	2024	2025	2023	2024	2025
Angélus	60	60	50	40	40	30	40	38	30
Ausone	40	35	30	60	65	65	—	33	29
Beauséjour	70	72	69	30	28	31	46	28	39
Bélair-Monange	98	98	98	2	2	2	45	35	26
Canon	71	78	76	29	22	24	45	44	40
Clos Fourtet	87	84	84	7	10	10	46	30	28
Cheval Blanc	52	46	51	46	48	45	40	28	15
Figeac	41	33	38	32	28	30	45	31	25
Pavie	51	51	30	32	32	60	33	24	21
Rocheyron	75	80	80	25	20	20	35	33	30
Troplong Mondot	84	85	85	3	2	2	53	35	27
Average	66	66	63	28	27	29	40	33	28
				10-year appellation average				38.2	*37.9*

Table 1: Percentage of Merlot & Cabernet Franc in the grands vins and final yield (hl/ha), 2023, 2024 & 2025

They make for interesting reading. In general (and with my caveat about generalisations still ringing in my ears), they show a modest but significant increase in the proportion of Cabernet Franc in the final blends of the grands vins.

That is intriguing in a way. For Cabernet Franc yields were typically lower and suffered more than those for Merlot. But the quality of what was harvested was exceptional. In short, where it was there to be used, it was used. Indeed, the principal factor for it not being even more present in the final blends of these wines was simply its low and variable yield.

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	10-year average	% Change
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
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

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

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

What we also see, as is further confirmed by Table 2, is that yields in Saint-Émilion, even among the leading estates, were down significantly. But, crucially, they were also rather higher than in the other iconic appellations of the region. Saint-Émilion might have suffered like everyone else under the baking summer sunshine and in near drought conditions, but it suffered a little less – notably when compared to Pomerol (to which we will return in my next appellation profile). It did so largely because of the compensatingly higher yields on limestone and clay-limestone terroirs, aided by a little more late summer rain than across the appellation border.

Colin Hay and Pierre-Olivier Clouet of Château Cheval Blanc

Generalisations, as I have been at pains to stress, don’t go very far in a vintage like this, above all in an appellation like Saint-Émilion. So rather than offer some more by way of conclusion, let me instead hone in on three rather more focussed and specific observations.

The first is to highlight the considerable success in the vintage of wines with high levels of Cabernet Franc in the final blend. There are 12 grands vins with over 40% Cabernet Franc in the blend that feature in my Saint-Émilion report. Table 3 shows just how well they have performed in 2025.

	% Cabernet Franc	Rating
Angélus	50	97-99
Ausone	65	98-100
Canon-La-Gaffelière	45	95-97
Cheval Blanc	45	98-100
Clos Saint-Julien	50	93-95
Le Dôme	80	96-98
Fleur de Lisse	42	93-95
Haut Simard	80	93-95
Jean Faure	65	95-97+
Lassègue	46	95-97+
Pavie	60	96-98+
Trottevieille	51	97-99

Table 3: Proportion of Cabernet Franc in the final blend and 2025 rating

The second observation is the concentration of quality now to be found in and around Saint Christophe-des-Bardes and, along the plateau beyond, towards Castillon. This used to be rather mockingly described at the “Saint-Estèphe” of Saint-Emilion – in other words, the part of the appellation in which the fruit was never ripe. As Table 4 shows, that is no longer the case (and hasn’t been for a long time). The former cold spot of the appellation is now the figurative hot spot.

	Rating
de Ferrand	93-95
Croix de Labrie	96-98
Fleur Cardinale	93-95
Laroque	96-98+
Rocheyron	98-100
Valandraud	95-97+

Table 4: The “Saint-Estèphe” of Saint-Émilion

Third and finally, let me reiterate one of my conclusions from 2024. The average quality of the grands cru classés of Saint-Emilion is, now, excellent. Even in a far from homogeneous vintage, these are now a far more homogeneous bunch in qualitative terms than has ever been the case in the past. The competitive classification system for the wines of Saint-Émilion has many detractors. But it does seem to have passed this, perhaps the most important test of all, with flying colours.

Needless to say, there will be plenty of value to be found among its members.