No other wine region makes a splash with a new vintage like Bordeaux. The wineries of France’s largest fine wine region use the annual futures campaign, once merely an exercise for the trade, as the chance to spark interest in the latest vintage, hosting barrel tastings for members of the trade and media, and then releasing futures in a steady stream over the following weeks, hopefully grabbing customers’ attention.

The challenge the wineries face is that en primeur doesn’t hold the same magic as it did in past years.

That said, en primeur is a chance for the wine world to learn more about the latest vintage and to get a sense of where château owners believe the wine market is heading. Do they feel the wine industry will face continuing challenges in 2026? Or do they have hope business is on the upswing?

How Futures Work

The premise of Bordeaux en primeur is fairly simple: The top wineries sell futures—effectively an agreement to purchase the wine on release—the spring after harvest, while the wines are still aging in barrels. They get cash up front to help them cover production costs. The négociants—as well as the retailers, restaurants and consumers they sell the futures to—get first dibs on the wine, theoretically at a lower price than when it’s bottled and released two years later.

The challenge wineries face is that for several years now the wines are no longer gaining measurably in value between en primeur and release. Customers can wait and buy plenty of wine once it is in the bottle. The days of consumers making a profit off Bordeaux are long over.

And then there is the state of the market for Bordeaux right now. There are three major ingredients for a successful en primeur campaign in the U.S. market. The vintage must be promising, the global economy must be stable and the dollar must be fairly strong. This year, only the first criterium has been met.

High Quality, Low Quantities

My colleague James Molesworth has been tasting and reviewing Bordeaux since 2008. He spent two weeks in April visiting leading producers, learning about the 2025 growing season and tasting barrel samples. Molesworth will officially review the wines in blind tastings after they are bottled. (Publications releasing scores now are tasting barrel samples non-blind at the wineries and in mass walk-around tastings.)

Want to be in on all of James Molesworth's Bordeaux 2025 tastings? You can sign up for our Collecting email newsletter here. Each week, you'll be alerted to the lastest château tastings. And at the end of his trip, James will be taking questions for a Q&A on all things Bordeaux.

Overall, he pronounced 2025 a very interesting vintage. The season started early—very early. The growing season was very dry, and two heat waves in late summer left their mark. Late rains helped finish the ripening. Quality is strong, but yields are absurdly low.

It’s a vintage for those who like tannic wines. Thanks to the drought, berries were tiny and had very little juice. If it hadn’t been for some late August rains, the vintage might have turned into another 2003, with clumsy, off-kilter wines. With the rain, maturity was able to finish. At their most integrated, these wines are similar to 2010, but with slightly lower alcohols. He recommends waiting to see how the wines develop as they age and are bottled.

An Uncertain Economy, Plus Tariffs

No matter how strong the latest vintage, the nature of Bordeaux futures means sales are at the mercy of global economic conditions. The world was already suffering from an inflation hangover, coupled with trade battles between the United States and everyone else.

The uncertainty over the tariffs is a particular challenge. While many of President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year, he implemented a new 10% universal tariff on all nations for 150 days. A federal court just ruled that tariff was imposed improperly, but the White House plans to appeal. What’s more, the administration is conducting multiple investigations that could soon lead to new tariffs.

The bottom line is that any customer buying futures now cannot be sure what the tariff on the wine will be when it is released and shipped to the United States. And then there’s the U.S. dollar. One dollar is currently worth 0.85 euro, down from 1.03 euro in 2023. That’s giving American consumers less purchasing power.

June 12: A Campaign About the Future, Not the Futures

After a lull at the end of May and start of June, as Bordeaux's vintners attended Vinexpo Asia, the 2025 futures campaign started up again and accelerated quickly. The past two weeks have seen most of the leading properties release their futures to the market. Only a few top names, such as Château Margaux, have yet to release, which gives us a clear idea where this campaign is heading.

What's clear is that Bordeaux's top wineries are thinking about positioning their wines for future sales, once the wines are bottled, rather than on trying to make en primeurs attractive to consumers. Wine collectors who are considering whether to buy futures see a vintage that is promising, but uneven. The wines need time to evolve in the bottle before quality is clear. What's more, the current global economy makes expensive wines less than attractive. 

The winery owners see a vintage that is much more promising than the 2024 vintage. They also see a vintage much smaller in quantity. And so, nearly every estate has raised prices this year. Mouton-Rothschild, Lafite Rothschild and Haut-Brion, which along with Margaux often set the tone, have all raised prices from 2024 by 20% or more. Most other top names have opted for increases between 5% and 28%. Consumers looking for bargains will not find them. And the 2023 wines, which offer quality, are now bottled and can be purchased at nearly identical prices today. 

2025 Futures Prices

This list tracks pricing for a selection of leading Bordeaux producers that have a historically strong presence in the U.S. market. Retail prices are an average of more than two dozen trusted retailers we follow. En primeur prices for the 2025s are listed alongside the current prevailing retail price for Bordeaux's most recent vintages, so you can measure where the wines are vis-à-vis those currently on retail shelves.

Prices given are at U.S. retail. $NA means a wine has not been released or is not sold in sufficient quantities by U.S. retailers yet to determine an average price.

May 22: After a Lull, Lafite, Palmer, Cos And Others Provide a Jolt

Bordeaux largely took a break for a week after the first futures hit the market, but that’s over now. Recent days saw some big names release their 2025 futures, and a few trends are taking shape.

Lafite Rothschild is the biggest name to debut, releasing at €405 euro per bottle ex-négoce. Top U.S. retailers are selling it for $470 per bottle, or $5,640 per case, a 20% increase in the 2024 futures. Still, it’s cheaper than the other recent vintages on the market. Just five years ago, Lafite futures were selling for well over $1,000 per bottle.

Château Palmer also released this week, selling at €239 ex-négoce. It’s in the U.S. for $278 per bottle, a 28% increase on the 2024 futures, but cheaper than both the 2023 and 2022 vintages currently on the market. In Pauillac, Lynch Bages released its 2025 at €86 ex-négoce. U.S. retailers have it for $100 a bottle, a 19% increase on the 2024 futures, but well below recent vintages currently on sale.

Other producers opted for small increases. Cos d’Estournel released its 2025 at €105 ex-négoce, and it’s selling for $122 in the U.S., a 4% bump on 2024. Léoville Barton is offering its 2025s at €69 ex-négoce, which translates to $80 at U.S. retail, a 13% increase on 2024. Brainaire-Ducru, meanwhile, is selling its 2025 at €43 ex-négoce. U.S. retailers are offerings it for $50 a bottle, up 16% on 2024. Over in St.Emilion, Canon-La Gaffelière released its 2025s at €56 ex-négoce, which translates to $65 at U.S. retail, a 7% bump from 2024.

The common thread for all of these wineries is that the quality of 2025 is much more promising than 2024, what’s more, there’s a lot less wine. Most estates are only releasing one tranche of futures; some didn’t make a second wine this year. But they also know the market is weak, which may make it hard to sell Bordeaux with higher prices.

                                                                                      May 11: Cheval Blanc Accelerates the Campaign with a Big Hike

The biggest question hanging over the 2025 vintage futures campaign is: Will wineries hold the line after dramatically dropping prices during last year’s campaign? On the one hand, the quality of the 2025 vintage looks like it will be much higher than the 2024s. What’s more, there’s a lot less wine this time around. That would suggest château owners will raise prices.

On the other hand, there is little to no appetite for more expensive Bordeaux right now, except with the most diehard of collectors.

The campaign began last week with a usual suspect—Château Pontet-Canet, which kicked things off by holding its price at just about the same level as its 2024s on release. Pape Clement then released its 2025 futures at $80 per bottle, a 4% increase over its 2024s. Malescot-St.-Exupéry, a good value wine, released its 2025s at $46 per bottle, up 2% on the 2024s.

But then Cheval Blanc stepped forward, releasing its 2025 futures at €336 per bottle ex-négoce, up 20% from last year, when it offered the lowest price since 2008. Thanks to the weak dollar, leading American retailers are offering the wine for $473 per bottle, or $5,676 per 12-bottle case, a 27% jump on the 2024s. One reason for the big increase is that Cheval Blanc’s team says this was the smallest harvest on record, and they are selling the entire production now as futures, not holding some back until release.

Source: Wine Spectator