Petrus 2019

Gorgeous, offering a pure, concentrated beam of raspberry and boysenberry puree that drives through, with mouthwatering anise, black tea and apple wood accents and a perfectly embedded graphite spine. Features fruit that just won't quit, picking up extra energy from a savory thread as it moves through. Best from 2025 through 2040.

A seductive and sensual nose full of ripe and sweetly-perfumed cherry and blackcurrant notes - which are even more expressive and abundant after an hour in the glass. This is such a beguiling wine, changing in texture and fruit profile several times from a first sip of smooth and streamlined, chalky tannins to one filled with bright acidity and succulent juiciness then shifting another gear delivering a palate full of concentrated dark fruits edged with liquorice and black pepper. The tannins are abundant and clearly present, Olivier Berrout director of Petrus says he’s never produced a vintage with such high tannins, but they are wonderfully consistent and well integrated with a lovely powdery element to them. You really feel the structure develop in the mouth, building in complexity and layers with a beautiful perfume and wet stone minerality lingering on the long finish. You have to wait for the reticence and reservation of Petrus in its youth to subside before you see the power and energy here but it’s giving a tantalising glimpse of what its long life holds in store.

Olivier Berrouet turned out a fabulous Petrus in 2019. A gorgeous, expansive wine, the 2019 opens beautifully over time. There is a feeling of radiance in the 2019 that is impossible to miss. Hints of rose petal, lavender, mint and cinnamon meld effortlessly into a core of red/purplish fruit. At 14.8%, the alcohol is high, but not intrusive. "We worked very hard to extract as gently as possible," Berrouet explained. Readers lucky enough to own the 2019 should plan on cellaring it for a decade or more.

The 2019 Château Pétrus is a behemoth, and I can't imagine a better marriage of sexy, opulent fruit with purity, precision, and length. Always all Merlot from a single parcel of clay soils, it takes time to unwind in the glass (I followed this bottle for multiple days) and offers a powerful, primordial style in its black cherries, mulberries, smoked tobacco, damp earth, and chocolate, as well as a beautiful floral component that emerges with air. Dense, concentrated, and incredibly rich on the palate, it has a multi-dimensional mouthfeel and sweet yet substantial tannins. Despite plenty of glycerin and opulence on the palate, which certainly makes it fun to taste today, it has a very straight, classic feel that will demand bottle age. It probably needs to be forgotten for 8-10 years and will deliver the goods over the following 50 years or more.

Dark-fruited, supremely refined and delicate, the 2019 Petrus offers abundant ethereal spice and an incredible depth. Enormously intense and racy, yet also very fine and multilayered, with a magnificently taut acidity that gives the wine a special brilliance and freshness. Its exquisitely delicate tannins coat the palate completely. This Pomerol quite simply has everything. It is hardly surprising, then, that some participants in the tasting nominated 2019 as the finest vintage. Eternally long and nuanced, tight-knit and beautifully delineated.

A dense, structured Petrus that is full of naturally fleshy but concentrated blueberry, blackberry, cassis and loganberry fruits that feel both fully ripe and fully subdued and closed-in on themselves right now. As ever with Petrus, you have to be patient, as everything just slows down and takes its time. The tannins are juicy, with great aromatic persistency, allowing touches of smoked caramel, black truffle, black chocolate and pencil lead through as it opens. As it uncurls things turn spicier and more profound, with edges of mint leaf, fennel, aniseed and eucalyptus. This is a wine with so much to say, and it is in no hurry to go anywhere. 50% new oak.

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Petrus charges out of the gate with rambunctious plum preserves, fruitcake, and blueberry compote notes, leading to suggestions of Chinese five spice, iron ore, and licorice. The full, rich, densely laden palate is textured with firm, fantastically plush tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length and decadence.

As always, Petrus needs time to reveal all its complexity. It was necessary to rein in twice the tannic mass of 2018, and it was done wonderfully. At the tasting on June 6, the wine stood out for its very refined, silky attack, unfolding with fullness into a persistent aromatic profile and a vibrant finish. On June 16, at our second tasting, notes of peony, rose, spice, Sichuan black pepper and violet were perfectly in place. A Petrus that is more subtle than demonstrative in its early days. A great future ahead.

A rich, dense nose that instantly wraps you in swirls of aromas of ebony-dark black fruits, gently smoky and spicy, deliciously sappy and creamy… Close your eyes and you are seized by the sensation of reclining on the velvet banquettes of an Orient-Express speeding straight into the sunset. That floral facet already perceived en primeur reappears, with notes of perfectly open iris, at once damp and woody, along with peony, violet and a hint of tuberose. If the palate is less explosive than the bouquet, its richness is nonetheless perfectly controlled, thanks to a finely honed minerality carried by sublime bitters. The velvety texture turns silky, on a wave of sweetness and extraordinary, fleshy fluidity. Let the wine linger for long minutes in the glass to see it evolve into a delicately powdery, addictive finish, gliding across the palate with the outline of a smile.

Above all, it is finesse and precision that define the bouquet of Petrus. Nothing really new, admittedly, but it is still worth pointing out. The summer was dry and hot, leading to very tannic wines. With a pH of 3.55 (very low for Merlots at perfect ripeness), which provides a fine acidic structure, balance is assured! The bouquet shows beautiful fruit definition; everything is clean and detailed, with nuances of red berries and iris. With a little aeration, the wine reveals notes of graphite and cedar along with a peppery touch. Petrus unfolds very slowly across the palate. Such composed power, with magnificent freshness counterbalancing its massive side to create an exceptional symbiosis. Everything falls into place; harmony settles in. As time goes by, Petrus becomes ever more Petrus. It clearly underscores that patience will be required to truly enjoy it.

Logo on the cork: CB Dark, intense, beautiful colour. A very aromatic, refined nose—fruity, subtle, complex and noble. The art of combining softness, creaminess and clay, with an impeccably crafted aesthetic, bringing volume through the mid-palate and great gentleness in the texture. Then, between the mid-palate and the finish, flavour builds and the whole becomes more rounded, making it impossible to spit out. I find new aromas in this wine, rarely encountered here. This 2019 takes the lead for the vintage. Blend: 99% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc. Alcohol: 14.7%, balanced by a superb pH of 3.65.

The 2019 Pétrus is a powerful, heady wine, bursting from the glass with aromas of raspberries, cassis, violets, spices, licorice and kirsch. Full-bodied, fleshy and layered, with an ample core of fruit, lively acids and powdery tannins that assert themselves on the liqueured finish, it's a ripe, high-octane Petrus that reflects the influence of a dry, warm growing season on what is essentially a single cépage (Merlot) and a single soil type (clay).