Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
An extremely captivating Poyferré this year. Beautiful vivid and vibrant colour in the glass with soft rose and violets on the nose. Juicy and alive, immediately so charming, chewy, fleshy but cool and stony. Mouthfilling with licks of liquorice, tobacco, cola and hints of clove. I love the restraint on show – this is still a powerful wine but so much more relaxed than it could have been. Graceful yet impactful, full of ripe fruit with such a generous and happy attitude. I love it. Potential upscore in bottle. A yield of 20hl/ha, one of the smallest yields. Owner Sara spoke of lower fermentation temperatures, shorter macerations and shorter pumping-over to keep soft tannins. No deleafing, kept cover crops and used cold rooms to let grapes cool before optical sorting, especially for the more fragile Petit Verdot. Julien Viaud consultant. 5% Petit Verdot completes the blend.
Barrel Sample: 98 -
Jeb Dunnuck
Ripe, sexy amounts of red, black, and blue fruits, smoke, tobacco, and scorched earth all define the 2025 Château Léoville Poyferré, a blend of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Petit Verdot. It's full-bodied on the palate, with a round, layered, exuberant mouthfeel, plenty of velvety tannins, and ample mid-palate depth. It's a ripe, opulent, beautifully balanced 2025 in the making.
Barrel Sample: 96-98 -
James Suckling
Beautiful on the nose. Stylish and concentrated, medium- to full-bodied, with freshness and a savory note in the finish. Cohesive and precise, with fine-grained, focused tannins. Very structured at the end. A solid and bracing Medoc.
Barrel Sample: 96-97 -
Vinous
The 2025 Léoville-Poyferré was picked from September 8 to 23 at just 20.3 hl/ha, undergoing a six-day cold pre-fermentation maceration and matured in 80% new oak. This is quintessential Poyferré on the nose, quite sensual and pure in style, with layers of ripe black fruit, black plum, a hint of camphor and violet. Wonderful delineation. The palate is framed by fine tannins, beautifully balanced, again quite minerally in style, with a precise and persistent graphite-tinged finish. If you love Poyferré, then you are going to adore this. –Neal Martin
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Shy and introverted at this stage, the 2025 Léoville Poyferré reveals a somber bouquet of oak, spice, licorice and ripe dark berries. Medium- to full-bodied, dense and deep, it’s broad-shouldered and structured, built around a creamy new-oak mid-palate framed by an abundant tannic chassis that carries through to a spicy, oak-influenced finish.
Barrel Sample: 91-93
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
An icon of balance and tradition, St. Julien boasts the highest proportion of classed growths in the Médoc. What it lacks in any first growths, it makes up in the rest: five amazing second growth chateaux, two superb third growths and four well-reputed fourth growths. While the actual class rankings set in 1855 (first, second, and so on the fifth) today do not necessarily indicate a score of quality, the classification system is important to understand in the context of Bordeaux history. Today rivalry among the classed chateaux only serves to elevate the appellation overall.
One of its best historically, the estate of Leoville, was the largest in the Médoc in the 18th century, before it was divided into the three second growths known today as Chateau Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Léoville-Barton. Located in the north section, these are stone’s throw from Chateau Latour in Pauillac and share much in common with that well-esteemed estate.
The relatively homogeneous gravelly and rocky top soil on top of clay-limestone subsoil is broken only by a narrow strip of bank on either side of the “jalle,” or stream, that bisects the zone and flows into the Gironde.
St. Julien wines are for those wanting subtlety, balance and consistency in their Bordeaux. Rewarding and persistent, the best among these Bordeaux Blends are full of blueberry, blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco and licorice. They are intense and complex and finish with fine, velvety tannins.