Château Malartic-Lagravière 2025

Critic scores

• Jeb Dunnuck94-96
• Vinous92-94
• Decanter94

The 2025 vintage in Pessac-Léognan

Vintage benchmark: 94/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: A dry, bright summer, tempered by cool nights, gave pure, balanced wines, more classic than sun-drenched.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pessac-Léognan. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The tannins are thus very refined, the vines having enjoyed harmonious growth. The wines are supple, full, and even show an almost saline quality in the reds. They also display a certain very elegant generosity. The final architecture, marked by concentration and finesse, is reinforced by a highly accomplished press-wine selection.

Blend of the 2025 vintage

Figures from the 2025 sheet

• 38 hl/haYield
• 28 yrsVine age

Winemaking

Small truncated-cone wooden vats, temperature-controlled double-walled stainless steel tanks

Ageing

Early blending, traditional ageing on fine lees in French oak barrels, 50% new oak.

Terroir

Château Malartic-Lagravière lies on a high terrace deeply cut by the Eau Blanche stream and its tributaries. It is formed, to a depth of 8 metres, of gravel islets dating from the Quaternary era. While the gravel layer provides excellent drainage at the surface, the subsoil of shelly limestone, made up of fossils from warm seas, together with veins of clay, retains a substantial water reserve. This ensures a perfect water supply to the vine, even in the most severe droughts. A highly permeable soil, optimal sunshine and reduced sensitivity to climatic variation are all eminently favourable factors.