Bordeaux 2025: some additional tasting notes

db’s Bordeaux correspondent catches up with a few Bordeaux en primeur wines that missed the main appellation profiles but deserve a mention.

It’s mid-May, we’ve already had quite a few prominent releases, my appellation profiles are published, my tasting note online and yet it’s still a little too early to offer a definitive assessment of how the campaign is faring. So, logically, it’s time to put my feet up?

Well, yes, maybe … but, ultimately, no. For, as ever, there are a few samples which arrive after the appellation profiles are published and that deserve both a mention and uploading to our tasting notes database.

There are three of them in fact. Two are from Saint-Émilion, both consulted by the talented Thomas Duclos. The first is a brilliant wine from a very exciting terroir that I here encounter for the first time. It is Château La Voûte, a tiny property fabulously situated on the extension of the plateau between Saint-Christophe-des-Bardes and Castillon, opposite Valandraud and Fleur Cardinale in Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse. In short, it is from hallowed terroir – and it tastes like it already. One to watch.

The second (well, the second, third and fourth – since there are three of them) are the trilogy of wines from Château Palais Cardinal in Saint-Suplice de Faleyrens – the best set of wines I have tasted from here. Amongst them are the very promising new special cuvée ‘1867’ produced for the first time in this vintage.

Finally, we have Château Léognan in Pessac-Léognan. This is a wine that I recently had the opportunity to taste in the context of a wider vertical tasting that will feature in a separate article. The estate is little known as yet, but beautifully located and entirely surrounded by forest (with 6 hectares of vines in a property of 60 hectares). It was planted by non-other than Olivier Bernard and, until its acquisition in 2007, provided fruit for Domaine de Chevalier. The 2025 is the first vintage to be produced under the guidance of its new consultant winemaker, Sébastien Vergne (formerly of Château Margaux). It is truly excellent and a sign of what to expect in the years to come.

Tasting notes

Chateau La Voûte 2025 (Saint-Émilion; 100% Merlot; pH 3.36; 13.45% alcohol; from a small jewel of a property opposite Fleur Cardinale and Valandraud of 3.93 hectares, with just over 3 hectares on the limestone plateau itself; a final yield of a very healthy 40 hl/ha; Thomas Duclos is the consultant here). This is the first vintage to be presented en primeur and it’s very impressive. This is top terroir limestone plateau Saint-Émilion and it’s been very well managed. Cassis and wild blueberry, pumice and graphite. Soft and quite ample on the attack, with very gracious but distinctly chalky, powdery tannins sketching like pencil strokes the external parameters of a dense, fruit-charged frame. There’s a lovely purity and freshness to this, nothing at all out of proportion and I love the way the delicate yet tactile tannins squeeze, pinch and form the lifted, aerial, shimmering finish. Very accomplished and very impressive indeed. A potential star under the spotlights for the first time. Saint-Étienne-de-Lisse has new talent! 92-94.

Château Palais Cardinal 2025 (Saint-Émilion; 75% Merlot; 15% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Cabernet Franc; 13.5% alcohol). Bright and distinctly crunchy in its fruit signature, with plenty of vertical lift, a lovely note of wild thyme, but quite a bit of sweet spice too – cinnamon and nutmeg above all; there’s even a hint of star anise. Bramble and baked plums. On the palate this is quite sweet-fruited on the attack and more solar than most. It’s not especially ample in frame and lacks a little in sustenance. But it’s been nicely managed and will be accessible and quite hedonistic almost immediately. 90-92.

Château Haut Gros Caillou 2025 (Saint-Émilion; 80% Merlot; 10% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Cabernet Franc; 13.5% alcohol; from the Palais Cardinale stable). This is fresher, brighter, crunchier still in its fruit signature than Palais Cardinale with more dark berry and less stone fruit. It’s a little less sweet-scented on the palate and there’s a little more concentration and density in the mid-palate. Long and quite lifted on the finish. Nicely achieved. 90-92+.

Château Palais Cardinal Cuvée 1867 2025 (Saint-Émilion; 65% Merlot; 25% Cabernet Sauvignon; 10% Cabernet Franc; 13.5% alcohol). A special cuvée named to honour the founding date of the property; just 1867 bottles produced. This is more intense than the other Palais Cardinal wines, but the greater extraction, greater density and greater concentration comes without any loss of precision and with no degradation in the quality of the fine-grained tannins. This is plump on the attack and plush in and through the mid-palate. The graphite generously enrobes the dark berry and stone fruit and this is nicely sustained on the finish. Rather more serious and with significantly extended aging potential this will require a little more patience than Palais Cardinal itself. 91-93.

Château Léognan 2025 (Pessac-Léognan; 60% Cabernet Sauvignon; 35% Merlot; 5% Petit Verdot, incorporated for the first time; a final yield of 34 hl/ha; 13.5% alcohol; tasted at the property as part of a vertical with Philippe Miecaze and Sébastien Vergne). Crunchy with lots of vertical lift, this is nicely expressively aromatically with stalky herbal notes alongside the plum, damson and bramble fruits. There’s a little wild sage and olive tapenade too and a delightful peony bulb, iris, violet and rose petal florality. Tasted at the end of an impressive vertical, this has a pleasing purity and a nice sense of density and compactness too. But, above all it is luminous and crystalline, sinuous in the mid-palate and energetic. Vivid. 92-94+.

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