Château Berliquet, 2025 - Magnum
Château Berliquet, 2025 - Magnum
- 150cl
- 14%
- Red Still
- Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon
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Est. delivery in 2028.
Château Berliquet sits prettily on Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau, where the Debourdieu family has been quietly crafting some of the appellation's most refined wines since taking over in 2008. This is Merlot-driven Bordeaux at its most graceful — think silky rather than blockbuster, with the kind of mineral backbone that only limestone terroir can provide.
What the critics say:
Berliquet's vineyards occupy prime real estate on Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau, sharing the same geological foundation as neighbours like Canon and Magdelaine. The thin topsoil over deep limestone bedrock forces the vines to dig deep, creating wines with natural elegance and mineral precision. The plateau's elevation provides excellent drainage whilst the limestone retains just enough moisture to sustain the vines through dry spells, resulting in grapes that ripen slowly and retain their natural acidity.
Saint-Émilion Grand Cru represents the upper tier of this Right Bank appellation, where wines must pass both vineyard classification and annual tasting approval. Unlike the Médoc's rigid hierarchy, Saint-Émilion reclassifies its châteaux every decade, keeping producers on their toes. The appellation favours Merlot over Cabernet Sauvignon, producing wines that are generally more approachable in youth than their Left Bank cousins whilst still offering serious ageing potential. The limestone and clay soils create a distinctive mineral signature that sets Saint-Émilion apart from the gravel-driven wines of Pauillac or Saint-Julien.
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.
