The best Bordeaux vintages, 2000 to 2026

A weather report before a verdict

A vintage is a weather report before it is a verdict, so the second column below explains the third, and the weather of each year has a page of its own. A wet September hurts late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon (opens in a new tab), which is why 2012 went to the Merlot (opens in a new tab) of the Right Bank. A dry autumn after a wet summer favors that same Cabernet, which is why 2014 went to the northern Médoc (opens in a new tab).

Twenty-seven harvests, one row each

Year	What the weather did	What came out best
2000	Hot, dry August and September, rain-free harvest	Reds on both banks, at every price level
2001	A cooler September; firm, classic reds	Pomerol (opens in a new tab) and Saint-Émilion (opens in a new tab); Sauternes (opens in a new tab)
2002	Low yields, irregular ripening	The northern Médoc, where Cabernet Sauvignon beat Merlot
2003	The August heat wave; the earliest picking anyone then working could remember	The Left Bank, Saint-Estèphe (opens in a new tab) above all
2004	Uneven ripening, heavy sorting to remove underripe fruit	No clear winner; reds from underripe to moderately concentrated
2005	Every condition met at once; Cabernet fully ripe	Both banks
2006	July heat, cool August, then September rain	Pomerol; Saint-Émilion struggled with the rain
2007	A cool, wet summer; the grapes struggled to ripen	The weakest red vintage of its era; the Médoc held best; Sauternes, where autumn brought noble rot
2008	April frost on the Merlot, a cool August, then a sunny late season through the harvest	Dry whites; the Right Bank ahead of the Left
2009	Warm, even summer after a good flowering	Both banks; the ripe one of the trio; Sauternes, with full botrytis and very high sugars
2010	Dry, sunny August to October with cool nights	Both banks; the firm one, high in tannin and acidity
2011	Record early flowering, then a cool, rainy summer	Modest reds; exceptional Sauternes
2012	Uneven flowering, hot summer, late September rain on the Cabernet	The Right Bank, on its early-ripening Merlot
2013	The most difficult red harvest of the era; yields cut drastically	Dry whites and Sauternes
2014	A wet summer rescued by a dry September and October	Saint-Julien (opens in a new tab), Pauillac (opens in a new tab), and Saint-Estèphe
2015	Warm, dry spring and summer; August storms eased the drought	The Right Bank; Margaux (opens in a new tab) and Saint-Julien kept up; dry whites
2016	Very wet first half, then dry to harvest	The Médoc reds, the best since 2010; Pomerol
2017	The frost of late April	Wherever the frost missed; an earlier-drinking year
2018	Wet, with mildew, until July, then dry to October	Both banks, from a crop cut by mildew in places
2019	Cool, wet spring, late June heat, then dry into September	Both banks; dry whites and Sauternes too
2020	A season that began under lockdown, with a warm spring and mildew, then 8 dry weeks in summer	Both banks; critics judged it to combine the structure of 2005 with the refinement of 2016
2021	April frost, then mildew in a cool summer	Fresh, moderate reds, patchy; the producer matters more than the year
2022	Extreme heat and drought; irrigation allowed in places for the first time	Médoc and Graves (opens in a new tab) Cabernet; Right Bank Merlot
2023	Warm and wet, with mildew again	Dry whites and Sauternes; reds good to very good, Pomerol and the Saint-Émilion plateau strong
2024	Rain, mildew, and rot, worst in the Médoc and the Graves	Lighter reds; the best limestone and clay sites of the Right Bank; Sauternes
2025	Hot and dry through most of the season; the smallest crop since 1991	Too young to rank
2026	The earliest harvest on record, after a hot, dry summer; picking began on August 6	Too young to rank; the crop was forecast about 10% above 2025

What the table does not say

It does not say a bottle is good. A strong estate in a weak year can beat a weak estate in a strong one, and a lesser year such as 2017 opens earlier than the great ones around it.

It does not settle 2025 either. The season was hot and dry, and yields averaged 33.6 hectoliters a hectare. After the harvest James Lawther MW, writing for Jancis Robinson, reported that the reds had more freshness, lower alcohol, and better balance than the heat suggested. In Guto Assumpção’s barrel notes of April 2026, Pomerol stood out for its consistency and precision, and Saint-Julien, with structure and clarity, came perhaps just behind it.

Until the wine is in bottle, the last rows stay a weather report.