The 2026 Vintage: Full Speed Ahead

The 2026 vintage in Bordeaux was characterised by a particularly rapid climatic and vegetative chronology. After a mild and humid winter that encouraged a good awakening of the vines, spring marked an early start to the cycle. Successive heatwaves in spring and summer accelerated berry ripening, leading to exceptionally early harvests at Château Cazebonne. Indeed, we began harvesting the whites on 18 August, against a previous record of 25 August in 2022.
Analyses revealed a rapid increase in sugar levels, often accompanied by an equally rapid decrease in acidity. We had to act earlier than usual.

The Quest for Ripeness : Beyond Potential Alcohol

Given this early ripening, a crucial question arose for 2026 : how not to confuse a good sugar concentration with full phenolic ripeness ? This vintage demonstrated that it was sometimes necessary to accept high potential alcohol levels, particularly for Merlots, in order to harvest truly ripe grapes. The decision-making criteria, beyond simple Brix degrees, included berry tasting, skin texture, seed ripeness, evaluation of tannin quality, and the disappearance of green characters. Harvesting too early would certainly have preserved more acidity, but at the risk of producing wines without aromatic complexity.

Embracing the Singular Expression of the 2026 Vintage

The choice was clear : prioritise physiological and phenolic ripeness. This means accepting that some Merlots might exceed 14 potential degrees, rather than aiming for a 12.5 or 13-degree profile this year. The 2026 vintage does not "condemn" the Merlot grape variety, but its ability to rapidly accumulate sugars in contexts of high heat and early ripening raises questions about its future adaptation and the evolution of the typicality of Bordeaux wines.

The Bordeaux Challenge : Balancing Ripeness and Freshness

The 2026 vintage highlights the evolving viticultural challenge in Bordeaux. Previously, achieving full ripeness was a victory in itself. Today, with climate change, the question is how to achieve it without accumulating too much sugar and without losing excessive acidity. This new paradigm directly impacts harvest date choices and vineyard management strategies, guiding reflections towards the balance of future vintages, similar to the 2025 vintage in Bordeaux.

2026, a Vintage Revealing Terroir Diversity

The year 2026 accentuated the heterogeneity of results depending on plots and terroirs. Soil depth, its water retention capacity, the rootstock used, the age of the vines, and localised rainfall had a considerable impact. Highly draining gravel ridges, once guarantors of quality, sometimes suffered from early water stress, while deeper or clayey soils, with better water reserves, better supported the vines during hot and dry periods. This vintage raises the question of whether the great terroirs of yesterday will necessarily be those of tomorrow, and highlights the need for reflection on the choice of new grape varieties and rootstocks.

Ancient Grape Varieties : A Path for Tomorrow's Bordeaux ?

The experience of the 2026 vintage reinforces Cazebonne's work on replanting ancient Bordeaux grape varieties. This approach, initially heritage-focused, is also becoming a valuable climatic experimentation. We harvested magnificent Jurançon noir and Bouchalès, below 13 degrees. Mancin and Saint-Macaire exceeded 14 degrees but retained interesting total acidity levels. The tasting of the vats we carried out at the end of fermentations clearly reveals very interesting profiles for Jurançon noir and Castets-Bouchalès (blended during harvest).
This will, of course, need confirmation after ageing. The Merlots are rich, powerful, and will offer us a magnificent ageing profile. The Cabernet-Franc and Malbec are seductive. As I write these lines, fermentations are not yet finished for Cabernet-Sauvignon, Mancin, and Saint-Macaire, and thus have not been tasted.
Regarding the whites, Blanc Vert and Blanc Auba have not yet been harvested. We will certainly wait to try and produce a sweet wine this year. The Sauvignonasse were magnificent with exceptional aromatics. The Prueras was generous and offered low alcohol levels (around 11°).
The Gironde Chamber of Agriculture came this year to harvest 80 kilos of Blanc Auba to carry out a micro-vinification and work towards registering the grape variety in the official catalogue. Eager to taste!

A Vinification Respectful of the Vintage's Richness

For the rich and ripe reds of 2026, the vinification choice was guided by the pursuit of finesse rather than power. This resulted in limited pump-overs, concentrated at the beginning of fermentation, low temperatures (maximum 25° for reds and 20° for whites), and daily tasting of the vats. The decision to run off the wine was dictated by the delicacy of the tannins, the objective being not to extract beyond what was necessary. For the whites, the quest for freshness and aromatic expression was prioritised, with low-temperature fermentations and ageing on fine lees. The vintage is solar, but we managed to harvest at reasonable alcohol levels (less than 13 degrees for most lots).

Blending Vintages : A Path for the Future of Bordeaux Wine ?

2026 Vintage: exceptional vintage, full ripeness, high alcohol, low acidity
2025 Vintage: balanced, solar vintage
2024 Vintage: fresh vintage, under-ripe

What if we blended? A paradigm shift for Bordeaux, which is very attached to the notion of vintage. In any case, this vintage very clearly raises this question. We will have to provide an answer to this standard deviation in vintage profiles.

Legislation already allows us to blend vintages. I can thus put 15% of other vintages into my 2026. And reciprocally, my 2024 in tank can receive 15% of the 2026 vintage.
The vintage displayed on the label is the one that accounts for 85% of the bottle's contents.

Will we need to go further? Perhaps, that's the logic adopted by Champagne with its non-vintage Brut.

2026 : A Vintage That Also Calls for a Rethink of Viticultural Practices

2026 also challenges our vineyard practices.
At Cazebonne, we achieved very good yields (50hl/ha for whites, 40hl/ha for reds). This is unprecedented on the estate for 10 years. We certainly benefited from our work on reconstituting the organic matter in our soils over the past decade. But not only that, we had rain at the right time: 20mm at the end of June, 20mm at the end of July, 35mm at the end of August.
These rains were a blessing and allowed the berries to swell and ripen perfectly.
This, therefore, raises the question of irrigation. Will we need to be able to provide the missing 20mm tomorrow to avoid compromising a vintage? Ultimately, this is a small input, but it raises the question of the priority use of water in the coming years.