I've published some TNs for several wines on my website, along with my take on this vintage.
I put more randomly during the next 7-10 days.
Here are my TNs on Beausejour 2025, along with a nice picture of Alex R. and Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse at restaurant Le Jardin in Saint-Emilion.
2025 Beausejour: 69% Merlot and 31% Cabernet Franc. 13.5% alcohol. Josephine Duffau-Lagarrosse claims that 2025 is the best vintage she has ever produced, surpassing her efforts from 2022 and 2023. I completely agree with her. 2025 Beausejour here is like a beautiful painting or sculpture. It displays a wonderfully aromatic nose and distinguished palate, complete with a sophisticated touch, refreshing chalky acidity, vibrancy, and purity. The staggering midpalate and finesse, along with a mesmerizing finish, leave you speechless. It is undoubtedly among the best wines of the vintage! 99-100p.
I got invited to a tasting of the 2025 vintage today hosted by Berry Brothers here in London. Joséphine was there with her assistant but unfortunately when I arrived at her table she was on her cell phone. So unlike Alex I didn’t get much of a look in there. But I still was able to try her 2025, which I thought was excellent, bordering on outstanding. I gave it 94-96 points, a bit less than Izak. But I thought the Figeac, tasted right before, was the superior wine. But each to their own, eh?
I also tasted Beausejour and Figeac on the same day at the respective estates, with a two-hour interval between them.
I thought Beausejour was the better wine, and my score for Figeac is perhaps a little generous for the latter. For what it’s worth, there are a lot of wine critics who are praising Beausejour 2025 with high scores, but not Neal Martin, Antonio Galloni, or William Keeley.
I invited Josephine to lunch at restaurant Le Jardin in Saint-Émilion, and Alex and I had an excellent chat with her.
However, I did have some disappointing moments on my trip. Some chateau owners may have overlooked the original agreement on which wines to taste. I was also overlooked at two places in Pomerol, where the chateau owner/winemaker, who was standing by the table next to mine, chose to speak for quite some time with a large group of visitors rather than come over to my table for a minute or two and say, “Nice to see you here, Izak.” I think they should be very happy with the rating I gave their wines, because I didn't deduct anything for the quality of the visit.
These were in stark contrast to excellent visits at Mouton Rothschild, Margaux, Haut Brion, Latour, both Pichons, Le Pin, Corbin, Cantemerle, Cos d'Estournel, Montrose, Tertre Roteboeuf, Petrus, Bourgneuf, Clinet, Croix de Labrie, Seraphine, Dalem, Carmes Haut Brion, Haut Bailly, Ausone, Beausejour Becot, and L'Evangile.
Did you taste Trotanoy, Cantemerle, Mouton-Rothschild, Lynch Bages, and other important ones?
Hi Izak
Sorry to hear about your mixed experiences in Pomerol
The tasting I attended here in London was only for two hours between 2pm and 4pm and I didn’t have time to taste all the wines, but I got a pretty good idea of the vintage, and the contrast to the 2018s tasted alongside was pretty stark.
These 2025s aligned closely with my expectations. Generally speaking, but especially on the left bank, these are wines with freshness, precision, classicism, energy, pitch perfect ripeness (no over ripeness), terroir expression and paucity of fat (moderate alcohol) so evident in the (high alcohol) 2018s tried alongside. This tends to magnify the tannins (and acidity) on the 2025s, which are refined but prevent many of the top wines from being viable drinking propositions for at least a decade, which contrasts quite starkly with the 2023s, many of which will be accessible at a young single digit age, and in fact quite a few you can drink right now.
So 2025 is not as ‘useful’ a vintage as 2023 but it is a grander one for the longer haul. Based on what we tasted I would hesitate to proclaim that the 2025s set a new benchmark - and the best wine I tried today as the Mouton 2016 - but clearly it is a vintage in the top echelon. The last point to reiterate is that the difference between the 2025s and the 2018s shown along side by most estates was palpable. Many of the 2018s came across as bloated and clumsy by comparison to the 2025s, like comparing a labrador to a greyhound.
Gazin 2025, 13.5% abv, 87% Merlot - rich blue fruit, v impressive, 94-96
Conseillante 2025, 13.5% abv 87% Merlot - high class blue fruit, leaner than other recent vintages, 95-97
Conseillante 2018, bigger, rounder, not as impressive as the last time I tried this 93-95
Nenin 2025, remarkably accessible and inviting, a Delon theme today, 93-95
St Emilion
Canon 2025, 14% abv - a leaner, more refined and racier Canon than we have been used to since 2015, 94-96
Figeac 2025, 13.1% -very fine, very precise, 96-98
Figeac 2018, while very ripe it is voluptuous and one of the best 2018s 94-96
Laroque 2025, 13.5%, good value in St-E, 92-94
Beausejour 2025, 13.5%, an emerging superstar, 94-96
Beausejour 2018, 14.5%, 92-94
Pessac Leognan
DDC rouge 2025, 12.5% abv - a return to classicism, 92-94. Olivier Bernard told me that Stéphane Derenoncourt left a few years ago to manage Domaine de L’A, which I didn’t try. The welcome return to more classically styled DDCs was most noticeable in the 2020 vintage.
DDC rouge 2018 - still on the dark side and a bit spoofy - 90-92
SHL 2025 - 93-95
SHL 2018 - very ripe and pushing the boundaries - 91-93
Haut Bailly 2025, 13.3% abv - gorgeous and the pick of the Pessacs - 95-97
Haut Bailly 2019 - sweet and ripe but v high quality - 94-96
LCHB 2025, 13% - just superb, pick of the Pessac with HBa - 95-97
LCHB 2018 - super blue fruit, thrilling for the vintage - 93-95
I didn’t bother with Langoa and Leoville Barton because I knew they would be good and didn’t want to get patronised by Lilian and obliged to taste the Mauvesin ugly stepchild
Margaux
Brane Cantenac 2025 - ripe tannins, punchy, usual high standard - 93-95
Rauzan Segla 2025, 13.3% abv - a racier more precise style than recent previous vintages, 93-95
St Estephe
Calon Segur 2025, 13.6% abv 92-94
Calon Segur 2018, 91-93
Cos D’Estournel 2025, 13% abv - fleet footed, refined 94-96
Cos D’Estournel 2018 - 92-94
…in case you were wondering no Montrose, no 63 pt Gilman 2018….
I think Saint-Émilion has an incredible number of astonishing wines to offer, especially those from limestone soils. Pomerols on the clay subsoils are not bad either.
I have to say that Mouton Rothschild is, together with Trotanoy, my 100p wines in 2025 vintage.
I found Brane Cantenac 2025 leaner than usual. Didn't manage to taste LLcases and Pontet Canet and Calon Segur. Gazin didn't impress me that much.
