The 2025 Bordeaux En Primeur campaign has generated more questions than any vintage in recent memory—about quality, pricing, tariffs, and whether to buy now or wait. Here are the answers to the questions we're hearing most from collectors, with links to the full analysis where relevant.
I don't think Bordeaux 2025 compares to anything else, from the growing season to the En Primeur campaign. Harvests were as early as they've been since 1989 and yields were as low as they were in 1961. The solar vintage seemed to hint at 2022, but the result is something far more restrained. It's with these thoughts that I'd advise throwing all other vintage comparisons out the window and consider 2025 like this: there are a lot of remarkable wines that are very refreshing in style, complex in structure, and at prices that range from sharp to can't miss.
When speaking of Bordeaux, Graves and Pessac-Léognan are often left out of the conversation when discussing the Left Bank/Right Bank divide. This is a glaring omission. Some of the region's best wines and values can be found here—and in 2025, the appellation delivered at every level, from the grand crus to the everyday drinking wines, and from the reds to what may be the finest dry whites of the entire campaign.
2025 Bordeaux is one of the strongest vintages in recent memory, released at prices that may not last. The campaign is winding down, larger formats are going first, and the best allocations are already moving. Here is how to make sure you don't miss it.
Where the Left Bank impressed with structure and precision, the Right Bank was about texture. We spent the first half of our trip across the Médoc and Pessac-Léognan, and the wines were stunning. But the moment we crossed to the Right Bank, the whole character of the vintage shifted under our feet. Where the usual suspects of the Haut-Médoc and the Graves showed depth and promise, the Merlot- and Cabernet Franc-dominated wines of Saint-Émilion and Pomerol gave us something more generous—silky, expressive wines layered with minerality.
The 2025 Left Bank delivered across all four major appellations—but not uniformly, and not in the way recent vintages have prepared us for. Pauillac produced wines of extraordinary density off half the usual crop. Saint-Julien was the steadiest appellation of the entire campaign, top to bottom. Margaux, rescued by sixty millimeters of rain at exactly the right moment, was the appellation of the vintage. And Saint-Estèphe's clay gave the commune a tension the south had to chase. Here is what we found.
If you asked me to describe my perfect Bordeaux vintage, I'd say good concentration, purity, freshness, with moderate levels of alcohol. Balance and full ripeness, but with a sense of weightlessness and texture. That is very nearly exactly what 2025 delivered.
This is a fascinating time for Bordeaux. The wines are as good as they have ever been, and pricing for many releases has fallen to levels that remind us of campaigns from a decade ago. Few regions in the world can offer this combination of pedigree, quality, ageability, and value.
Chillable reds have been very much in vogue over the past couple of years. These light, bright, crushable wines are often quite translucent in the glass and drink beautifully at cool cellar temperature, around 55-60°F, or even properly chilled like a white or rosé, closer to 45-50°F.
Read MoreFor fifty years, K&L has been in the business of finding the best wine and spirits for the best prices. We've built deep relationships across the industry, and that's been the secret ingredient in the K&L sauce. In the 80s, co-founder Clyde Beffa realized that some of his friends in California had made more wine than they could sell; he could buy the juice at a discount and pass along the savings to the customers—as long as he didn't reveal his sources. Thus Kalinda was born, and we started our foray into private labels. Since then, we've expanded to a family of them: Bordeaux and Italy bottled under our Discovery Series; French country wines blended as Rendez-Vous; a Grand Cru Champagne bottled for us as Maison 76; California wineries we can't name under the Anonymous Wine Collective; and casks we picked ourselves in Scotland and Kentucky. Every bottle below exists because a K&L buyer stood in a cellar and said yes.
Read MoreK&L Spirits Buyer David Othenin-Girard rounds up his spirits picks for beating the summer heat: rum royalty, a tequila innovator, a mystery malt, and the best spritzes to keep cool.
Read MoreThompson Bros' Mystery Malt series is exactly what it sounds like: a US-exclusive blend of single malt Scotch drawn from twenty different distilleries, with the true contents revealed only on labels hidden under the capsule, cork, and neck. Non-chill filtered and naturally colored, it may haze slightly at low temperatures — a sign of authenticity, not a flaw. Each 6-pack case includes 6 different bottles, and each full pack carries a similar value — new-wave single casks sitting alongside very old single malts from established names. There's no better way to organize a blind tasting than a full case.
Read MoreWhat do K&L customers actually drink? This is it. The twenty wines that outsold everything else in the first half of 2026 — from a $9.99 Vinho Verde to a 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains library Cabernet — ranked by bottles sold, with no scores and no spin. Alongside them: ten July staff picks including the second wine of Sassicaia and a $17.99 Crémant that drinks well above its price, plus eight summer whites and rosés every one under $35. Fifty years in, this is still the best list we publish.
Read MoreThe best summer wines don't ask much of you. They ask to be cold, to be opened without ceremony, and to disappear faster than you planned. From Chablis to the Salnés Valley to the Sonoma Coast, here are eight bottles we'll be drinking until the fog rolls back in—every one under $35, most well under.
Read MoreFrom a $19.99 Mâcon-Fuissé to Le Montrachet itself: K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross presents six white Burgundy producers to buy right now — Decanter's Best in Show value from Château Vitallis, 2024 Billaud Chablis, and fiercely allocated Morey, Colin, Lamy, and Sauzet.
Read MoreRamonet, PYCM, Paul Pillot, Lafon, Leflaive—and Sauzet. K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross counts Domaine Etienne Sauzet among white Burgundy's truly transcendental producers, and the 2024s are proof: from village Puligny at $129.99 through seven 1er Crus to Le Montrachet itself. All pre-arrival.
Read MoreShould you come across an offering for them, don't hesitate," says Allen Meadows of the 2023 Hubert Lamy wines. K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross on securing an allocation of Olivier Lamy's fiercely contested St-Aubin, Chassagne, and Puligny whites—all pre-arrival, from $89.99.
Read MoreJasper Morris and Allen Meadows agree: the 2024s are the best wines Joseph Colin has ever made. K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross on the rising star of Burgundy's great Colin family — brother of Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey — from St-Aubin 1er Cru to Bâtard-Montrachet, all pre-arrival.
Read MoreUnder the direction of Sabine Mollard, Domaine Marc Morey has quietly become one of Chassagne-Montrachet's finest producers. K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross on fresh allocations of the 2022 and 2023 vintages — understated, classic white Burgundy from $59.99 to Grand Cru Bâtard-Montrachet.
Read MoreCritics compare 2024 Chablis to the legendary 2014 vintage, and Domaine Samuel Billaud made some of the best wines of the year. K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross on why Billaud is the smart alternative to Dauvissat and Raveneau — from $39.99 village Chablis to 98-point Grand Cru, all pre-arrival.
Read More
