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Bordeaux 2025 en primeur: Saint-Julien retains ‘distinctive appellation character despite the challenges of the growing season’

06 May 2026 By Colin Hay

db’s Bordeaux correspondent, Colin Hay, continues his review the Left Bank’s en primeur offerings with Saint-Julien, the smallest and invariably the most homogeneous of the Médoc appellations.

Having started our tour of the Médoc in Margaux, there is really only one way to go – north. But it always takes longer than you think to get to the next significant stop on our route, Saint-Julien.

Indeed, the good 20 minutes or so that it takes to get from the northernmost classed growth of Margaux, Marquis d’Alesme, to the southernmost classed growth of Saint-Julien, Beychevelle, is surely responsible for more late arrivals at en primeur tastings than anything else (except, perhaps, lunch at Pichon Baron!).

But passing Lanessan on the left and crossing over the Pont de l’Archevêque, Château Beychevelle, the Versailles of the Médoc, comes into view as the D2 rises on arrival in our second destination.

The wines here feel immediately rather different in their personality to their southern cousins. They are richer, typically broader-shouldered, a little more powerful, nuttier and often just a smidgeon riper and more opulent. That impression is reinforced once again in 2025. For this is one of those terroir-amplifier vintages in which the character and personality of each cru seems accentuated.

That said, and despite the distance we have travelled, we still remain here in the southern half of the Médoc and the meteorological conditions of the vintage were just a little more extreme in both Margaux and Saint-Julien than they were further north.

This is clear from Table 1 which shows that, if anything, average yields were even lower in Saint-Julien than they were in Margaux. Indeed, among the leading appellations of the Left and Right Banks, only Pomerol suffered more from the extreme heat and dryness of the summer, with Saint-Julien’s average yield being nearly 30% below the (already quite low) 10-year average.

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	10-year average	% Change
Margaux	36.3	38.6	31.3	37.7	33.1	28.8	39.2	-26.5
St-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
St-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
St-Emilion (GC)	36.7	27.5	41.2	40.5	36.4	34.7	37.9	-8.4
Pomerol	39.8	28.9	32.3	45.2	28.4	25.9	36.6	-29.2

Table 1: Average vineyard yield by appellation (hl/ha)

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

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Compounding the suffering, and as Table 2 reveals, the yields for the leading estates were typically lower still (with the Léovilles between them averaging only a little over 20 hl/ha). The result is a little less Cabernet and a little more Merlot in the final blends, at least relative to 2023 and 2024.

Wine	% Cabernet Sauvignon			% Merlot			Yields (hl/ha) 2025
Wine	2023	2024	2025	2023	2024	2025	Yields (hl/ha) 2025
Beychevelle	61	55	52	35	42	43	32
Ducru-Beaucaillou	85	86	79	15	14	21	22
Gruaud Larose	83	81	77	15	17	21	26
Léoville Barton	87	92	86	10	6	12	22
Léoville Las Cases	86	84	82	4	5	6	23
Léoville Poyferré	62	64	61	32	27	26	20
Saint-Pierre	80	85	78	17	12	15	20
Average	78	78	74	18	18	21	23.6

Table 2: Percentage of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon in the grands vins and final yield (hl/ha)

But the wines themselves are excellent – at all likely price points. Saint-Julien is, of course, the smallest and probably the most homogeneous in the quality of its terroir of the Médoc appellations, with a significant proportion of the 910 hectares or so under vine today hugging the Gironde. That undoubtedly helped these wines to retain their distinctive appellation character despite the challenges of the growing season and the low yields confirmed above.

The wine of the appellation is, once again, for me the ethereal Léoville Las Cases, closely followed by the latest in a series of breath-taking wines from Gruaud Larose.

Ducru-Beaucaillou, Léoville Barton, Léoville Poyferré and a very impressive Saint-Pierre snap closely at their heels.

Those looking for value would do well to seek out the excellent Branaire Ducru or Lagrange and we have three of the top second wines of the vintage in Sarget de Gruaud Larose, La Croix Ducru-Beaucaillou and Le Petit Lion.