Sophia Gilmour, Market Analyst: Reflections on En Primeur 2025
Sophia Gilmour, Market Analyst, shares her reflections from her time on the ground in Bordeaux, along with her key takeaways from the 2026 En Primeur…
An outstanding vintage in an uneasy year
Before heading to En Primeur this year, I was warned by colleagues who’d attended previous tasting weeks in Bordeaux to not expect to enjoy barrel samples. The wines, they said, would be too intense, too acidic, too tannic or not yet developed enough to give any pleasure. And I admit, stepping off the plane at 10am and driving straight to a Hangar for my first 40 wines was challenging. But they were not quite as unwieldly as I’d been told to expect; many wines that we tasted over the following days were generous, some borderline approachable. Though I’m far better placed to discuss the subsequent release pricing of these wines than their quality, I was not alone in my glowing overall assessment – the 2025 vintage, on the whole, has been near-unanimously declared by critics outstanding.
While there was little contention on quality, the mood in Bordeaux couldn’t quite have been described as jubilant. Even tasting delicious wine, it is not easy to be entirely upbeat as one stands surrounded by leaning towers of unsold cases of wine. It is no secret that the supply chain has been struggling. There was recognition – whether said aloud or not – that getting this years releases right could be make or break. In the words of one winemaker ‘I know, I know. Either I price low and upset the directors or I price high and kill En Primeur’.
It seems that over the past two decades, Bordeaux has found itself at more critical junctures, inflection points and pivotal moments than ought to be possible. What set this year’s apart from the rest was the wake of the 2024 campaign — a vintage that had brought into harsh reality the possibility that, unless private clients could be clawed back, long-standing supply chain relationships alone might fail to keep En Primeur alive.
Last year, following successive vintages of unrealistic pricing and deep into the decline of the broader market, it was not just private clients, but merchants and negociants that found themselves either unable or unwilling to take on stock of the (poorly rated but sometimes aptly priced) 2024s. Without sufficient demand from the rightly-dubious collector, there was neither warehouse space nor cash available to buy what could not be sold.
The campaign commences
Though I do love the excitement of En Primeur and relish in analysing releases, I am not exactly a morning person. But, if I am to be arriving to an empty office at 7am for six weeks straight, I’d at least like to be sharing exciting news. In the early days of the campaign, there were several such occasions. Batailley, Larcis Ducasse, Cheval Blanc and (once Kelley’s potential 100 point score had been released) Pontet-Canet were amongst the early successes.
Then came Lafite. Having come down significantly in 2024, they were able to raise the price by 15% year-on-year while keeping the 2025 the cheapest of similarly rated vintages on the market. The pricing was smart – it clearly drew on current Market Prices rather than release prices of back vintages. They also leveraged the supply-side. While not a popular decision amongst merchants who’d had their allocations squeezed, and possibly unsustainable in the long-run, this move did create an air of scarcity.
Unfortunately, ‘15%’ caught on. Where wines did not provide clear value, they did not sell. In most of these cases, the similarly or better rated 2019 or 2020 vintages came out on top. There were notable releases that bucked this trend, Gruaud Larose and Clinet worthy of mention.
The campaign lost steam after Vinexpo, though the strong releases from Leoville Las Cases and Montrose did inject some life into its final days.
EP sales
In general, Liv-ex members were disappointed with their sales over the course of this campaign. Of UK merchants we surveyed, sales this year were flat on last year by value. The majority of merchants we spoke to thought release prices were too high to overcome this year’s hurdles. There were others, however, who were genuinely surprised by the lack of demand, deeming these releases fair.
Conversations were dominated by complaints, but there were few who did not name at least a couple successes.
Lessons from the 2014 vintage
Take a moment to consider post-campaign coverage of the worse-rated 2014s, a vintage that is now regularly touted as the last well priced En Primeur:
Those who’ve been following this year’s coverage will no doubt feel a sense of Déjà vu. I’d draw attention to some other similarities between the 2014 and 2025 campaigns:
- Released after years of ambitious pricing (2009, 2010; 2021, 2022).
- Directly following a low yielding, poor quality vintage (2013; 2024).
- Released into stabilising markets.
While, at the time, there was discontent with 2014 pricing, they have fared well in the longer run. If we were to ask now if the 2014s were correctly priced, if with perfect hindsight one would have bought at those prices, many would say yes. With the Bordeaux market showing signs of stability, there is finally also reason to believe that, in two years time, when the 2025s reach shores, alternative vintages won’t be cheaper than they are now.
What now?
In short, this was not a knock-out campaign, but neither have those of the past that we now look fondly back on been either. This was perhaps not the make or break campaign we expected it to be, but one of okay prices and tepid sales. There remain reparations to be made to piqued En Primeur buyers of the past, but the 2025 vintage was not the death of En Primeur. I may have many more early wake ups ahead of me yet.
