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.
Here's the math on summer: more bottles opened, more people showing up, same budget you had in June. So this week we kept things mostly under $20, added a few wines Keith Mabry can't stop drinking, plus the chillable reds on rotation at Chez Ryan Woodhouse. (There's also one splurge at the bottom, because rules are made to be broken...at least once.)
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 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 2023 Napa Valley vintage is as good as anything I've tasted in years—and the pricing, somehow, is better than ever. Dominus released their 100-point 2023 at a lower price than the 2021! It's a rare combination: an exceptional-quality vintage paired with more favorable pricing. No complaints from me!
Read MoreWith the summer solstice already in the rearview mirror and 4th of July celebrations in full effect for America’s 250th birthday, I figured I should talk a little about some of the crispest, most refreshing wines in our selection. As a lover of white and rosé wines in general, I can’t get enough of wines that enliven the palate—wines that need nothing more than a little sunshine to pair with them. When the opportunity for some day drinking reveals itself, I like to be ready to roll. So let’s keep the fridge stocked, the cooler bag at the ready, and something zesty and refreshing always within arm’s reach.
Read MoreK&L Redwood City Tasting Bar Manager Aaron Hughes rounds up his favorite 2025 California and Oregon rosés, from a $14.95 Willamette Valley crusher to top-tier Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir rosé from Flowers and Marine Layer. All dry, all delicious, all worth your attention this season.
Read MoreThis Spring 2026 newsletter brings together sharp insight from our buyers, a fresh look at Bordeaux futures, ten bottles our staff can’t stop opening, milestone releases from the Anonymous Wine Collective, a truly rare 36‑year‑old Speyside malt, and one of our favorite chillable Rhône producers just in time for warmer days.
Read MoreTo mark the first anniversary of the Anonymous Wine Collective, we’re releasing two extraordinary Sonoma Coast sparkling wines—both crafted by a longtime California sparkling specialist and aged far beyond the norm. From seven years on the lees to extended élevage in oak, these limited‑production wines deliver Champagne‑level pedigree at a fraction of the price.
Read More
