Château La Gaffelière, 2025 - Magnum
Château La Gaffelière, 2025 - Magnum
- 150cl
- 13.8%
- Red Still
- Merlot, Cabernet Franc
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Est. delivery in 2028
Château La Gaffelière sits on the prime limestone slopes of Saint-Émilion, where the Malet-Roquefort family has crafted wines of remarkable elegance since the 17th century. This Right Bank estate specialises in Merlot-based blends that capture the limestone terroir's distinctive mineral freshness whilst maintaining the plush fruit Saint-Émilion is loved for.
La Gaffelière's 22 hectares occupy prime south-facing slopes at the foot of Saint-Émilion village, planted on the famous limestone plateau that defines the appellation's finest wines. The thin topsoil over hard limestone bedrock forces vines to dig deep, creating wines with distinctive mineral tension and natural acidity. The limestone's excellent drainage and heat retention properties help achieve optimal ripeness whilst preserving the freshness that makes these wines so food-friendly and age-worthy.
Saint-Émilion, located on Bordeaux's Right Bank, is renowned for its Merlot-based wines that contrast beautifully with the Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant Left Bank. The appellation's classification system, revised every decade, recognises Château La Gaffelière as a Premier Grand Cru Classé. Unlike the Médoc, Saint-Émilion's limestone and clay soils favour Merlot and Cabernet Franc, producing wines of greater immediate charm but equal ageing potential. The appellation's compact size belies the diversity of its terroirs, from the limestone plateau to the sandy plains.
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.
What the critics say:
"The 2025 La Gaffelière soars out of the glass with magnificent intensity. Strong Cabernet Franc overtones and bright saline notes from the clay-limestone plateau are finely sketched with tremendous precision. The 2025 bristles with tension from start to finish. It's a phenomenal wine by any measure. Tasted two times."
"Thoroughly enjoyable, iris, juicy bilberry, loganberry, blackcurrant, rich, juicy and measured, has the fingerprint of limestone without being sharp. Clearly will age well, already totally delicious. 3.42 pH. Harvest September 12 to 22. 50% new oak."
"The 2025 La Gaffelière undergoes malo in barrel and matures in 50% new oak barrels and the remainder in one-year oak, 12% in demi-muids and 4% amphorae. It continues a strong run of form for this rejuvenated Saint-Émilion, with quite ebullient raspberry and wild strawberry scents, a dash of black pepper and brown spices, the Cabernet Franc shaping the aromatics and giving it a Pomerol-like personality. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, impressive weight, quite peppery and tensile; this maintains density and grip through to the long finish. This is a great wine that has great personality and charm."
"A brilliant château that has been producing truly exceptional wines over the last decade or more, the 2025 Château La Gaffelière sports a deep purple hue and a gorgeous perfume of black and blue fruits, minty herbs, graphite, and chocolate, as well as perfectly integrated background oak. On the palate, it's ripe, full-bodied, and concentrated, with a deep, layered style that brings the purity as well as the freshness that's the hallmark of the vintage. It's going to check in near the top of this notable vintage."
OUR GROWERS
Château La Gaffelière
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