Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, 2025
Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion, 2025
- 75cl
- 13%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Optimal drinking window: 2035 - 2055
Est. delivery in 2028
Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion occupies one of Bordeaux's most unusual plots, tucked into a suburban corner of Pessac-Léognan where vines grow cheek-by-jowl with the city. We find this urbanity rather suits the wine, which has always been Graves' most cosmopolitan expression, elegant where others are earthy, refined where they're rustic.
What the critics say:
"Deep dark ruby garnet, violet reflections, delicate edge brightening. Ripe dark berry fruit, a hint of plums, floral touch, pleasant herbal spice, some nougat and orange zest. Complex, yet lively, ripe cherries and cranberries, fine, ripe tannins, literally opens up in the mouth, delicate extract sweetness, lingers for minutes, already very convincing in its youth, cassis and ripe cherries on the finish, delicate and multifaceted, great future potential."
"The precision is so seductive and intellectual, with aromas of fresh flowers, iron, graphite, cedar, blood oranges and black fruit. It's medium-bodied with a compact palate of intense tannins that melt into the wine. Rather weightless in nature. It kicks in at the end with incredible intensity and focus. 13% alcohol. 65% whole cluster. 54% cabernet franc, 29% cabernet sauvignon and 17% merlot, mostly co-fermented."
"Almost opaque in color, it takes no effort to dig into the floral display. From there you encounter black cherries, licorice, spice box, menthol, cigar wrappers, blackberries and crushed rocks in the aromas. The palate is what steals the show with its vivid display of black, with red fruits, elegant, silky textures, and most importantly, purity of fruit. The velvety finish spreads all over your palate with touches of sea-salt, cocoa, Indian spices and lingering, dark fruits. Clearly, this is in competition with the best vintages the estate has ever produced. The ability to manage the potential of hydric stress, due to their terroir is a large part of what helped make 2025 such a success. The wine was made using 65% whole bunch clusters, blending 54% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 17% Merlot. It is interesting to note this is the highest percentage of Cabernet ever included in the blend. I think it really works here. 13% ABV, pH 3.59. The wine is aging in a combination of 70% new, French oak, 19% foudres, and 11% amphora. Picking took place September 7- September 19."
The estate's vineyards sit on gravelly soils with clay and sand sub-layers, characteristic of the urban fringes of Pessac-Léognan where the city of Bordeaux meets the wine country. The relatively high clay content moderates vigour and retains moisture, which benefits the Merlot in drier years and adds body to the blend. Being enclosed within the city provides a slightly warmer microclimate than more exposed Pessac sites, lending a ripeness that the estate's winemaking keeps in check with careful harvest timing. This combination of gravel drainage and urban warmth is part of what makes the estate's wines feel distinctly plush yet precise.
Pessac-Léognan was carved out of the broader Graves appellation in 1987 to recognise the superior quality of the northern communes closest to Bordeaux. All sixteen classified Graves estates fall within its boundaries. The appellation is the Left Bank's most versatile, producing both serious reds and some of Bordeaux's most compelling dry whites. Compared to the Médoc communes to the north, Pessac-Léognan reds tend to have a smokier, earthier character alongside their fruit, with more Merlot in most blends than you find in Pauillac or Saint-Julien.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
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Château Les Carmes Haut-Brion
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