Wines of the Year 2025: Recommendations from Our Buying Team

As 2025 draws to a close, we asked some of our team to share their wines of the year. 

To view all the wines from this article, please click here

These things can sometimes feel a bit like showing off, but flicking through the rolodex of bottles drunk over the previous year is such a pleasure that I’m prepared to risk a little grandstanding. The challenge is knowing where to stop!

Young bottled wines that stopped me in my tasting note tracks included the full range of Brovia 2021s, precision tooled Barolo at its effortless best; Lisa Togni’s hauntingly brilliant 2021 estate bottled Cabernet Sauvignon; and Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair La Romanée, also from 2021. This last was a magical wine of utterly spellbinding complexity and elegance, tasted blind and not, sadly, a bottle I got to enjoy in its entirety. It might otherwise have dominated this article…

In the neither young nor old section a bottle of Keller Abts E GG 2015 Riesling, drunk with winemakers in Piedmont, was so extraordinary that it pretty much left me speechless. I’m generally happier with imperfect wines that stir the emotions than those that seek ‘perfection’, whatever that means, but this really was as good as it gets and it was impossible to ignore the fact. A magnum of Rhys Horseshoe 2018 poured for friends in the trade was further proof that Jeff Brinkman is making truly world class Pinot Noir from his high elevation Santa Cruz Mountain sites.

Older, and rarer bottles included a bottle of Climens 1989 that could serve as a poster boy for the wonder - and value – still to be found in great mature Sauternes; a remarkably alive bottle of 1945 Puligny-Montrachet, producer unknown, then finally bottle of Haut Brion 1980, served blind by someone who loves to produce a birthday vintage. It was pure class and full of life. But perhaps that should not surprise. After all, things born in 1980 are still considered reasonably young, aren’t they?

I’m going to be greedy and pick two momentous bottles from 2025. The first was at our Bordeaux tasting in March. As a surprise, we halted proceedings at 6PM and introduced twelve mature wines from our cellars, including: Petrus, Le Pin, Lafite, Lafleur, Ausone, L’Eglise Clinet, Montrose, Leoville Barton, VCC and Rauzan Segla. I was pouring a less than perfect magnum of 1983 Chateau Margaux, but even if it wasn’t at its breathtaking best, it was still a wonderful wine that put huge smiles on faces, including my own. It reminded me that sharing great wines with fellow enthusiasts and friends is the best part of the job!

My second recollection comes from a lunch with colleagues on Thursday the 8th of May, which happened to be the 80th anniversary of VE Day. We enjoyed some wonderful wines from each of our collections including a brilliant 2015 Volnay Taillepieds from de Montille and a delicious Cote Rotie from Domaine Jamet. However, the pièce de resistance was a bottle of 1945 Grahams. The wine was remarkable and still full of vigour. It felt like a fitting way to toast all those who fought to secure our freedom during the Second World War.

A year that was as broad ranging and exciting as ever, across many regions, the Piedmont 2021 vintage ranks amongst the best I’ve tasted yet. With the quality so uniformly strong it is hard to pick favourites, though as a collection, Fratelli Brovia stands out; each wine imbued with high-toned aromatic complexity, latent energy, and a sumptuous, finessed tannic structure. Brovia is one of the Langhe’s great family wineries: they are welcoming and fun, whilst operating at the very highest level. Their 2021s speak to traditional Nebbiolo at its finest.

In Germany, the young wines from Weingut Wittmann felt special this year, as did the Kreuzberg GG 2024 from our friends at Battenfeld-Spanier. The first in-depth look at South Africa’s “New Wave” wines at 10 years of age in May proved to be a fascinating exercise that demonstrated the Cape’s ability to produce wines of longevity and class, especially whites. A bottle of Rayas 2010 shared with friends on the west coast stands out as likely the best Grenache I have ever drunk, and the same group re-assembled a couple of months later in London to enjoy amongst other wines: Coche Dury Meursault 2012, Chave Hermitage Blanc 1998 and Yquem 1996 – it is nice to remind oneself that sometimes classics are classics for a reason!

At a recent dinner with friends, we ate a delicious beef Bourguignon. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to see how my case of Grand Village Rouge 2021 was developing. I gave it 30 minutes in the decanter and served it just above cellar temperature. Happily, it was singing. Crunchy red berry fruit, brambles and garrigue, soft floral notes and plum on the mid palate. A little cigar box and peony on the finish. So subtle and delicate but with a lovely acidity which cut through the richness of the beef. I will certainly be going back to the cellar for more over the festive period.

The second wine is Conseillante 2012, so, it would seem right bank Bordeaux is my region of the year. I had heard that Conseillante was arguably the wine of the vintage in 2012 but had not had the pleasure of trying it. So, much to my joy, at a lunch, a bottle appeared, and it was everything I hoped it would be. In this instance, I interrupted my conversation to write a note, and here it is: “Beautiful plum and blackcurrant aromas, imbued with clove and nutmeg scents. Really bright and crisp with perfectly resolved tannins and judicious acidity. Almost no tertiary, it is so pure, primal and fruit forward with just a hint of brambles, sous bois, tobacco and dry leaves. Really very good”

Storm’s Vrede 2022 is a wine I’ve returned to several times this year as it reminds me exactly why I fell in love with Pinot Noir in the first place. Stylistically, it could sit comfortably among some of the finer expressions of the Côte de Nuits and I’m clearly not alone in that impression: Tim Atkin MW awarded it 97 points, calling it “one of the greatest Cape Pinots ever made.”

It doesn’t clamour for attention, but quietly draws you in, gently unfurling perfumed notes of raspberry, strawberry and cherry that continue to evolve in the glass. It carries the prettiness and poise you’d expect from a Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru, yet there’s a clarity and sunny, maritime brightness to the fruit that feels unmistakably Hemel-en-Aarde. The palate offers that almost paradoxical combination of delicious drinkability and intensity, finishing with a gentle yet assured grip.

At £40.58 per bottle, this is a wine well worth seeking out.