Château Quintus, 2025
Château Quintus, 2025
- 75cl
- 14%
- Red Still
- Merlot, Cabernet Franc
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Est. delivery in 2028
Château Quintus represents the ambitious Saint-Émilion project from Clarence Dillon, the owners of Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. This Right Bank estate combines prime terroir with Left Bank precision, creating wines that bridge the gap between Pomerol's opulence and Pauillac's structure.
What the critics say:
"A beautiful expression of fruit with focus and great definition. A tight balance between the chalky tannins, linear acidity and fruit. 73.2% merlot and 26.8% cabernet franc."
"The top of the slopes suffered most here, with compensating yields further down. This manages so well that fine line between cool and solar in terms of the character of the vintage. It's a little more solar aromatically and yet a little more cool in the depths of the mid-palate. Very calm, tranquil and composed; a little introvert, if not perhaps closed, this is very dark fruited, with lots of blueberry and black cherry, a little mulberry perhaps too with wild herbal and floral notes, cassis with gentle aeration. Here we have freshly crushed rose peppercorns rather than the green peppercorns of Le Dragon. There's a little spice from the barrel, but the oak is well absorbed, with cedar and a little graphite. This is more ample and softer still than Le Dragon – a tamed dragon perhaps. The fruit on the attack is brighter still and lighter in hue – loganberry and wild raspberry. Very pure, very elegant and stylish, suave and silky with an impressive clarity. This finishes on grapeskin, the impression reinforced by the delicate yet distinctly powdery, chalky tannins. A lovely lesson in terroir expression."
"Black cherries, blackberries, flowers, licorice, plums, and mint leaf complete the aromatic profile. The medium-bodied palate is even better due to its vivid display of sweet, lively, cherries, and plums coupled its purity, elegance, refinement and supple-textured finish that give this wine its unique character. The wine blends 73.2% Merlot, with 26.8% Cabernet Franc. 14% ABV. The harvest took place September 10 - September 22. Yields were 29 hectoliters per hectare. Drink from 2028-2050."
The vineyards sit on Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau at 90-100 metres elevation, where thin topsoil over limestone bedrock provides excellent drainage and mineral structure. This terroir naturally favours Cabernet Sauvignon over the Merlot that dominates lower-lying clay sites in the appellation. The limestone subsoil acts as a water reservoir during dry spells while the elevation provides cooling breezes that preserve acidity. This combination creates wines with both power and finesse, expressing the mineral backbone that defines the plateau's finest sites.
Saint-Émilion Grand Cru represents the pinnacle of Right Bank Bordeaux, covering 5,400 hectares on varied soils from limestone plateau to clay-rich côtes. Unlike the Médoc's strict hierarchy, Saint-Émilion's classification is reviewed every decade, keeping estates on their toes. The appellation traditionally favours Merlot for its clay soils, but plateau sites like Quintus prove Cabernet Sauvignon can thrive here too. Saint-Émilion Grand Cru demands lower yields and higher alcohol than basic Saint-Émilion, ensuring concentration and ageability in the finished wines.
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 Quintus
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