Bordeaux en primeur: every vintage from 2009 to 2025 reviewed

Buying Bordeaux means choosing a vintage first. From one year to the next, the style, quality and price of the same château can vary dramatically. And when you buy "en primeur" (before the wine is bottled), reading the vintage becomes critical: you commit your money based on very early barrel tastings.

This guide explains the Bordeaux en primeur system, then reviews every vintage from 2025 back to 2009: style, quality, ageing potential and a buying verdict. Some are drinking now, others need patience; some are still available en primeur, others only on the secondary market. The goal is simple: to help you know what to buy, when, and at what price it makes sense.

What is Bordeaux en primeur?

Bordeaux en primeur refers to the sale of wines still ageing in barrel, roughly a year after harvest and before bottling. Each spring, châteaux present the latest vintage to critics and négociants, then set a release price. The buyer pays today for a wine they will receive 18 to 24 months later.

How an en primeur campaign works

The campaign takes place each spring following the harvest. In April, the region hosts "primeurs week", where thousands of tasters sample wines still in barrel. Over the following weeks, properties release their prices in successive tranches. The wines are sold through the Bordeaux négociant network, the Place de Bordeaux, then delivered once bottled, usually one to two years later.

Buying en primeur: advantages and risks

Buying en primeur makes sense in specific situations, but it comes with risks worth understanding. The main advantages:

• Securing rare or highly sought-after wines whose volumes will be limited after bottling.
• Accessing special formats such as magnums or jeroboams, often impossible to find afterwards.
• Benefiting, in some years, from a release price lower than the future market price.
• Choosing the provenance and guaranteeing traceability from the outset.

How to judge a Bordeaux vintage

Judging a vintage is not just about a headline score. Bordeaux is large, and the same year can be outstanding in one appellation and disappointing in another. A few criteria help build a reliable view:

• The growing season: a mild winter, a frost-free spring, a warm but not scorching summer and a dry September are the recipe for a great vintage.
• Yields: low yields often concentrate the wines, but also mean limited production.
• Colour by colour: left-bank reds (cabernet-based), right-bank reds (merlot-based), dry whites and sweet wines do not respond the same way.
• The critical consensus: scores from The Wine Advocate, James Suckling or Decanter provide a reference, provided you cross-check them.
• Price dynamics: en primeur release prices for recent vintages, secondary market valuations for older ones.

All vintages from 2009 to 2025 at a glance

The table below summarises the profile and buying verdict for each vintage, from the most recent to the oldest. The sections below detail each year.

Bordeaux 2025

2025 is the vintage of paradoxes (sunny without heaviness, concentrated without losing finesse) and one of the most promising of the decade. Two heatwaves built the structure, while drought then late-August rain kept the alcohol in check and preserved a crystalline freshness. Above all, it is the smallest harvest since 1991: scarcity is built into the vines themselves. Accessible in 3 to 5 years yet capable of lasting 20 to 30, the best wines justify securing allocations during the en primeur campaign. Sauternes signs a historic vintage.

Bordeaux 2024

2024 bets on freshness, finesse and approachability, with sharply lower prices: a vintage of opportunities. Against the grain of sunny years, it favours moderate alcohol, crunchy fruit and a fine structure, in tune with contemporary tastes. Quality is good without reaching the heights, and the wines will be drunk fairly young. For buyers, the appeal is twofold: a digestible style and attractive pricing, making it an ideal entry point into great names.

Bordeaux 2023

A heterogeneous but high-level vintage, 2023 delivers beautiful wines at prices that have returned to reasonable levels: buy with discernment. Hybrid between classic and sunny, it was marked by heavy mildew pressure and very localised conditions, creating wide gaps between properties. The best wines, elegant and fresh, recall the great classic vintages. After 2022's price surge, release prices fell sharply, opening real opportunities on the finest wines.

Bordeaux 2022

2022 is an exceptional sunny vintage, one of the greatest ever produced, but also one of the most expensive. Despite record drought and heat, the wines retained a surprising freshness, combining concentration, depth and velvety tannins. Critics handed out near-perfect scores in abundance. The flip side: buoyed by this enthusiasm, release prices hit their highest levels. This is a great wine for the cellar, worth acquiring for its exceptional nature, with the understanding that the entry price is high.

Bordeaux 2021

2021 marks a clear return to a classic, fresh and lighter style, which will delight lovers of less powerful Bordeaux. A cool and challenging season (frost, mildew, low sunshine) produced wines with moderate alcohol, lively acidity and more restrained ripeness, best drunk in the medium term. It is a winemaker's vintage, highly heterogeneous, where sorting and expertise made all the difference. The lower prices and digestible profile make it an interesting choice for those who love freshness.

Bordeaux 2020

2020 closes a trilogy of great vintages (2018, 2019 and 2020) with concentrated, fresh and age-worthy wines: buy selectively. Small berries from a dry season produced intense, deeply coloured reds combining solar power and tension. Low yields limited volumes. The style is close to 2019 with added density and sometimes less homogeneity. It is a solid cellar vintage, with the best wines rivalling the decade's finest.

Bordeaux 2019

2019 is arguably the best value among the recent great vintages: buy without hesitation. It combines the ripeness of warm years with a near-classic balance, preserved freshness and silky tannins. Its en primeur campaign, launched in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, came with significant price reductions, offering rare access to great wines at contained prices. Excellent across all three colours, accessible relatively early while also age-worthy, 2019 ticks almost every box.

Bordeaux 2018

2018 is a great sunny vintage, rich and powerful, built for ageing. After a very wet spring marked by heavy mildew pressure, which reduced yields, a scorching dry summer produced opulent, dense wines with abundant tannins and high alcohol. The style is generous, almost spectacular, in the lineage of warm years. Quality is high across the entire appellation: a vintage to keep, which demands patience to reveal its full potential.

Bordeaux 2017

Overshadowed by 2015 and 2016, 2017 is a good, classic and fine vintage, but one to approach selectively. A severe spring frost reduced volumes and hit certain plots, creating strong heterogeneity. The unaffected wines offer freshness and elegance in a lighter, more approachable style, best drunk in the medium term. Criticised for release prices too high relative to its quality, it represents an opportunity today on the secondary market, provided you choose the right properties.

Bordeaux 2016

2016 is one of the greatest modern Bordeaux vintages, an absolute reference to buy and hold. An ideal season (wet spring followed by a dry, luminous summer) combined ripeness and freshness in a rare balance. The wines pair density, fine tannins and preserved acidity, promising decades in the cellar. The success is widespread, with a superb Médoc. While 2015 seduces with charm, 2016 impresses with precision and longevity: the definitive keeping vintage of the decade.

Bordeaux 2015

A high-quality vintage, 2015 shines above all on the right bank (Pomerol, Saint-Émilion), in Margaux and Pessac-Léognan: a vintage worth buying. Warm flowering and a warm summer produced ripe, charming and aromatic wines, seductive young and with solid ageing potential. Success is less homogeneous in the northern Médoc, where some wines suffered from summer rain. Highly sought-after, 2015 retains a high market value, justified by its generous and immediately gratifying profile.

Bordeaux 2014

2014 marks a welcome return to form and remains one of the best value vintages of the decade. An exceptionally sunny September saved the harvest and allowed the cabernets to ripen fully: the Médoc and the Graves appellations came out particularly well. The style is classic, fresh and digestible, without the power of the great sunny years but with fine balance. Many of these wines are now entering their ideal drinking window, and the reasonable prices make them a smart buying target.

Bordeaux 2013

For the reds, 2013 is one of the most difficult vintages of the period: avoid, with rare exceptions. Rain, coulure and botrytis pressure produced light, diluted wines ill-suited to ageing. The nuance lies in the sweet wines: in Sauternes and Barsac, those same wet conditions favoured remarkable noble rot, producing truly great sweet wines. The message for buyers is simple: pass on the reds, but seize the sweet wines.

Bordeaux 2012

A heterogeneous vintage better suited to drinking than keeping, 2012 fared better on the right bank, where merlot coped with a capricious season. The wines, supple and of average maturity, are pleasant today but rarely profound. For buyers, the approach is selective: favour Pomerol and Saint-Émilion, and treat this vintage as an option for immediate pleasure at a measured price rather than a cellar investment.

Bordeaux 2011

After the legendary duo of 2009 and 2010, 2011 marks a return to a more classic and lighter style, best drunk rather than kept. The contrasting season produced less concentrated wines, sometimes uneven across properties. The best offer freshness and balance, but the overall level lacks the brilliance of the two preceding vintages. Its interest today is mainly the price: it is an affordable way to access great names, provided you target wines already at maturity and drink them without too much delay.

Bordeaux 2010

Often compared with 2009, the 2010 vintage offers a more classic, straighter and more tannic style, built for very long ageing. A dry end to the season concentrated powerful wines with firm acidity and exceptional ageing potential: many will reach their peak between 2025 and 2045. Where 2009 seduces with generosity, 2010 impresses with structure and depth. It is the quintessential keeping vintage, still young in its finest wines and one of the safest choices for building a patrimonial cellar.

Bordeaux 2009

2009 is one of the greatest Bordeaux vintages of recent decades, worth buying both for the cellar and for immediate pleasure. Born of a hot, dry summer, it produced sunny, opulent, fleshy wines with ripe, velvety tannins, hailed at release as a benchmark by critics across the board. Fifteen years on, the great crus are entering their ideal window while more modest wines are already drinking beautifully. Highly sought-after, 2009 remains a cornerstone of the secondary market: prices are high, but the vintage's consistency across all appellations makes it a safe investment.

Which Bordeaux vintage to choose depending on your goal

The best vintage depends primarily on what you want to do with it. Here is how to guide your choice:

• To drink now: target mature and approachable vintages such as 2011, 2012, 2014 or 2017, already open.
• For a keeping cellar: 2010, 2016, 2018 and 2020 offer remarkable ageing potential.
• For the best value: 2014 and 2019 stand out, as do the finest wines of 2023 and 2024.
• For exception and rarity: 2009, 2016, 2022 and 2025 mark the recent history of Bordeaux.
• For sweet wines: 2013 and 2025 are very great years in Sauternes.

En primeur or secondary market: when to buy

Should you buy en primeur or wait? The common-sense rule: only buy en primeur when the vintage is great, the estate is sought-after and the release price is genuinely attractive (as was the case in 2019, and 2025's scarcity argues in the same direction). Otherwise, the secondary market often offers the same wines, already bottled, at a comparable or lower price, without tying up your money. For mature vintages like 2009, 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2018, that market is in any case the only option, and comparing offers between merchants becomes the real lever for saving money.