An outstanding year, a challenging year, a vintage which is not as it should be… and as such it must pique your interest. A huge dichotomy because it was hot and dry over the summer (the vignerons call it a ‘solar’ year, lots of heat), but it produced fresh, tempered clarets with lower alcohol, typically 12.5-13.5. Many growers told us it should have been like 2003, with similar drought and temperature, yet the ‘vintage comparison’, as an aide-memoire if you need one, is between 2016 and 2022: properties everywhere have managed to make very good to outstanding wines.

All things considered, the hot, dry summer of 2025 did not bode well for the production of fresh, dry white wines. Yet despite the challenges, winemakers have succeeded in creating wines of excellent quality. The key for many Châteaux was to pick early. To retain the desired acidity levels, many began harvesting in mid-August rather than September. With no end in sight to the dry, sunny conditions, winemakers frequently adopted a “smash-and-grab” approach to harvesting: one quick pass through the vineyards rather than several over an extended period, anything to secure the crucial freshness required in the finished wines. In the end, mother nature relented and in late August the region experienced some moderate rainfall but for those early pickers it was too late, the harvest was complete.

In a truly exceptional year for Sauternes - and 2025 is undoubtedly one of them - the quality, balance and sheer elegance of these remarkable sweet wines leaves you utterly captivated. 

Producing great Sauternes is no easy undertaking. It demands significantly more time, labour and expense than making a conventional dry white or red wine. The harvest must wait until noble rot, Botrytis cinerea, has worked its magic, while growers painstakingly select and sort the shrivelled berries by hand, all the while keeping a nervous eye on the weather and the threat of untimely rain. It is little wonder that Sauternes producers occasionally question their sanity.