A note from Co-CEO, Gary Boom, ahead of the 2025 En Primeur releases

A large Bordeaux Index contingent has just returned from Bordeaux, having tasted all of the key wines from the 2025 vintage. Despite En Primeur having a bumpy ride in recent years, we made the decision to redouble focus on what was anecdotally a very interesting vintage and coming at what is perceived to be something of a 'crunch-point' for Bordeaux in the marketplace. I wanted to share my thoughts with our clients at the earliest opportunity upon returning from the trip.

I am not writing to you now to tell you about how many drops of rain August saw, nor to analyse which appellation might score an average of a point higher or lower. Pricing is out of our control though we regularly share market context (based on our market-leading LiveTrade online platform) with our partners in Bordeaux.

Instead, I want to emphasise to you that - regardless of your enthusiasm or scepticism towards EP - this is a vintage to look very, very closely at. Why? Quite simple: a number of the wines were, in MY words rather than those of the chateaux, the best I had ever tasted in over 30 years of En Primeur visits. They feel like the culmination of the huge improvements in winemaking over the last 10-15 years - context our forthcoming report will focus on, indeed.

When I heard the harvest of the 2025 vintage was one of the earliest on record, it was not overly concerning, but it was equally not lost on me that the superb 2016 vintage, which we have just had the joy of revisiting at our Ten Years On this January, was picked almost a whole month later. However I was simply not prepared for the unique combination of ripeness, freshness, structure and modest alcohol levels. For those that want to understand the technical detail of how this came about, we would of course love to discuss further, but the headline is that where chateaux played the hand that nature gave them well - and many did - the results are exhilarating. The yields are small, often, we are told, towards the limits of commercial viability, but it is a vintage to admire the uncompromising approach which characterises top winemaking today. These are wines where chateaux have maximised the potential regardless of output.

Vintage comparisons are generally unhelpful but it is perhaps instructive that a number of chateaux talked of 2025 as being like a 1989 but with the benefit of exponentially better quality and consistency of winemaking. 1989 has developed its pre-eminent reputation largely over time as it became more approachable, but Bordeaux now does not require such patience (though can of course still benefit from it).

This is not an obvious example of a Left Bank or a Right Bank vintage, as both delivered very exciting wines. Equally there were plenty of examples of 'second' wines which kept coming up as we dissected each day of tasting, so it is also not a vintage with a few stars at the top and very mixed quality below: indeed this is another reason we are drawing attention to this opportunity for collectors - there is something for everyone and it is absolutely a vintage where there is particular benefit from being able to choose halves / magnums / larger formats when you buy on release.

As a business whose raison d'etre is buying and selling the full range of vintages of wines from top regions, it is unusual for us to draw such attention to a forthcoming new vintage like this, but I do so believing that the opportunity for our clients is one that merits significant focus.

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