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2025 Château les Carmes Haut-Brion, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Full Bodied
  • Cabernet Franc (54%), Cabernet Sauvignon (29%), Merlot (17%)
Not ready
James Suckling
99-100/100
Georgie Hindle
97/100
Jeb Dunnuck
96-98/100
Antonio Galloni
96-98/100
Yohan Castaing
95-98/100
Jane Anson
96/100
James Lawther MW
17.5/20
Neal Martin
95-97/100
Yohan Castaing
95-98/100
Product: 20258013701

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Description

This is a unique and extraordinary expression of the vintage, driven by winemaker Guillaume Pouthier’s vision and sensitivity. The key to understanding this wine is how the level of alcohol defines and drives it. Picked when beautifully ripe at 14% but reduced during fermentation because of the proportion of whole bunches used (65%), there is a wonderful alignment between all the components.

It seems simultaneously ready to drink now yet also profound and layered. The palate glides between the hedgerow fruit and floral notes, through sea breeze and into spice, while demanding your attention before diffusing into mellowness. This is a triumphant expression of modern Bordeaux.

Our score: 18.5/20

Berry Bros. & Rudd (March 2026)

Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2025
Alcohol % 13.5%
Maturity Not ready
Grape List Cabernet Franc (54%), Cabernet Sauvignon (29%), Merlot (17%)
Body Full Bodied
Producer Château les Carmes Haut-Brion

Critics reviews

James Suckling 99-100/100
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.
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (Apr 2026)
Georgie Hindle 97/100
Gorgeously fragrant on the nose with so many perfumed scents – violets, iris, peonies, cinnamon, exotic spices, black chocolate, something slightly sweet and aromatic with blackcurrant and dark bramble berries. Succulent and juicy with a powdery element to the tannins that fills the mouth straight away. I love the integration of the acidity – this has brightness but is also quite calm and charming, softer than expected. Sleek, sophisticated, full of complexity and nuance yet with real depth, intensity, concentration and integrity. Very true to place and to Guillaume Pouthier’s style. Succulent and floral Cabernets, aromatic all the way through, super long, graceful and full of width and flavour while staying clean. Ripe with tannins that fill the mouth – fleshy, grippy but wide and lifted – giving a gorgeous texture. A little citrus tang to the acidity but overall full of life and focus. Brilliant. 3.59pH. A yield of 38hl/ha overall (29hl/ha Merlot, 45hl/ha Cabernet Sauvignon). 65% whole bunch fermentation.
Drink 2033 - 2048
Georgie Hindle, Decanter.com (Apr 2026)
Jeb Dunnuck 96-98/100
Deeper-hued than the C des Carmes cuvée, with a gorgeous perfume of red, blue, and black fruits intermixed with graphite, leafy herbs, iris, and subtle floral, minty, and almost peppery nuances, the 2025 Château Carmes Haut-Brion is based on 54% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Merlot, vinified with 65% whole clusters. On the palate, it's wonderfully textured and medium to full-bodied, with a round, layered, expansive mouthfeel and ultra-fine tannins. I love its overall balance, it has no hard edges, and while there's plenty of tannins here (IPT 82), they're perfectly integrated and polished. It checks in at 13% alcohol with a pH of 3.59, and this is just loaded with charm and character.
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com (May 2026)
Antonio Galloni 96-98/100

The 2025 Les Carmes Haut-Brion is a huge, powerful wine that is going to need many years to come into its own. Dark red/purplish fruit, lavender, incense, melted road tar and licorice make a bold entrance. Fertility in the Merlots was low. As a result, the 2025 has the highest amount of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon ever, 83% in total as opposed to the more typical 70% or so. Whole clusters, always a part of the approach here, are 65%. Time on skins was 45 days at 27°C (80.6°F) compared to the 35 days at 30°C (86°F) that is more typical. Readers will find an especially deep, potent Carmes, a wine that will need the better part of a decade to shed some of its considerable baby fat. It's a telling example of the vintage, with 1% less alcohol than in most recent years. Today the 2025 is a mere infant. It's another exceptional wine from Technical Director Guillaume Pouthier and his team.
Drink 2033 - 2075
Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (Apr 2026)
Yohan Castaing 95-98/100
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.
Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate (Apr 2026)
Jane Anson 96/100
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.
Drink 2035 - 2055
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (Apr 2026)
James Lawther MW 17.5/20

54% Cabernet Franc, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot. 38 hl/ha. 65% whole bunch. Cask sample.

Poised, precise and perfumed. Resonates with aromatic fruit on the palate. Lovely texture, the fine-grained tannins silky and fresh. A little sweetness of ripe fruit but the finish lively and long.
Drink 2030 - 2050
James Lawther MW, JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2026)
Neal Martin 95-97/100

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.
Drink 2032 - 2060
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (May 2026)
Yohan Castaing 95-98/100
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.
Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate (Apr 2026)

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