Château Les Carmes Haut Brion, Pessac Léognan, 2025
Since Guillaume Pouthier moved to Carmes Haut Brion from Chapoutier, he has presided over a quiet revolution, turning this Pessac Leognan chateau into one of the most distinctive and sought-after wines in Bordeaux. Using 65% whole bunch fermentations in 2025, Guillaume favours very passive extractions: "infusions", with no pump overs or pigeage, but a constantly submerged cap This blend of 54% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot offers a demure bouquet of blackcurrants, a lovely floral character, violets, black cherry, crème de mûre and a touch of blood orange. The palate is very powerful and concentrated yet light and ethereal, brimming with ripe griotte and waves of luxurious raspberry - very creamy, seamless, sapid and poised. Rippling and detailed, the caressing fruit offers lots of detail: a hint of nori, tobacco, dark cacao nibs; long, serious, salty minerality. From start to finish this is all about beautifully detailed, floral, aromatic fruit. Guillaume has produced another outstanding wine, which ranks as one of the most seductive and most successful of the whole vintage.
critic reviews
The 2025 Les Carmes Haut-Brion comes from clay-limestone soils and was picked from September 7 to 19, with a high level of Cabernet Franc (54%) and lower Merlot (17%). This vintage has 65% whole cluster, similar to 2022, raised in 70% new oak barrels, 19% in 18hl foudres and 11% amphoras. This takes time to open on the nose: blacker, darker fruit than the Le C, black plum and touches of iris flower. Very pure, very well defined. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly chalky tannins on the entry, crunchy in the mouth, black fruit interlaced with Earl Grey, subtle ash-like notes. Linear towards the finish but very sustained in the mouth, there is plenty of energy in this Les Carmes-Haut-Brion and it should age with style and grace. More sapidity on the finish than the Dead Sea. 13.1% alcohol.
I was a little nervous to be honest about Carmes Haut-Brion, worried that this would be too sliced-through with steel acidity this year with the high Cabernet Franc, but I was worrying unnecessarily. It's totally beautiful, sleek, grilled campfire, a ton of momentum and there is a spherical feel through the mid palate, expanding and deepening the fruit flavours. High floral as you would expect, a crush of peony, iris, violet right on the first nose, chalky and slate edge to the tannins, full of energy, 14%abv at picking then whole cluster brought it down to 13%, 3.6ph, 65% whole bunch during fermentation. 38hl/h yield (compared to 24hl/ha yield last year after selection), 70% new oak. 3.59 pH. Harvest September 7 to 19, this is highest levels of Cabernet Franc to date.
The 2025 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a blend of 54% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon and 17% Merlot, one of the highest proportions of Cabernet Franc at the estate and comparable to 2016. It was vinified with 65% whole clusters and matured in 70% new oak. It reveals a complex, harmonious bouquet of pomegranate, iris and peony, intertwined with cassis, mulberries and dark berries. Medium- to full-bodied, dense and structured, it’s deep and layered, its concentrated core of fruit framed by velvety structuring tannins, concluding with a long, mineral-inflected finish. Combining tension with an ethereal profile, it delivers remarkable clarity, freshness and elegance. While slightly more overtly structured at this stage than the prodigious 2022, it remains impeccably balanced.