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2020 Petrus

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October 22, 2023 - $3,800

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RATINGS

100The Wine Advocate

...deep bouquet of dark berries, cherries and cassis mingled with hints of exotic spices, violets and vine smoke, it's full-bodied, layered and concentrated, with huge depth at the core, exquisitely refined tannins and a youthfully reserved, even restrained profile despite its power and size.

100James Suckling

The transparency and complexity in the nose is wonderful, with so much floral character like violets and roses with some fresh spices. Dark berries, too. Sandalwood. It’s medium-bodied but then it just opens and unfolds with incredible depth of fine tannins and great length. It goes on for minutes. It opens like butterfly wings. What a wine. Superb.

99Vinous / IWC

...wine of pure and total sensuality. Silky, creamy tannins wrap around a core of dark red and black fruit. A wine with explosive depth but no hard edges and mind-blowing balance...lifted floral top notes that add freshness. What strikes most is the elegance of the tannins.

98Wine Enthusiast

Wonderfully aromatic, this wine offers ripe tannins that give the appearance of softness. That's deceptive because the wine's structure is massive and concentrated. Velvet black fruits are embedded in the texture, superripe without losing freshness.

96Wine Spectator

Delivers a fairly gorgeous beam of ripe, lush, unadulterated raspberry fruit flecked with light anise, apple wood and sweet tobacco hints along the way.

PRODUCER

Petrus

Although there is no official classification of the Pomerol, Petrus – located in the Pomerol appellation on the right bank of the Gironde River -- is nevertheless one of the most sought-after wines in the world. Because there is no physical château on the property, the wine is often called simply Petrus. The wine’s fame began in the 1940s, when several Petrus vintages won international acclaim. Since 2010 Petrus has been made nearly entirely of Merlot, though previous vintages included tiny amounts of Cabernet Franc. Owned since 1961 by the Moueix family, the estate’s small size means that very little wine is produced, which adds to the wine’s prestige and mystique. The estate’s vineyard management has also become highly disciplined in the relatively modern practice of vendage verte, the thinning out of young grapes to encourage better ripening in those that remain. Petrus includes 28.4 acres of vineyards. The vines are 35 years old on average an annual production is 25,000 to 30,000 bottles.

REGION

France, Bordeaux, Pomerol

Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux’s red wine producing regions, with only about 2,000 acres of vineyards. Located on the east side of the Dordogne River, it is one of the so-called “right bank” appellations and therefore planted primarily to Merlot. Pomerol is unique in Bordeaux in that it is the only district never to have been rated in a classification system. Some historians think Pomerol’s location on the right bank made it unattractive to Bordeaux-based wine traders, who had plenty of wine from Medoc and Graves to export to England and northern Europe. Since ranking estates was essentially a marketing ploy to help brokers sell wine, ranking an area where they did little business held no interest for them. Pomerol didn’t get much attention from the international wine community until the 1960s, when Jean-Pierre Moueix, an entrepreneurial wine merchant, started buying some of Pomerol’s best estates and exporting the wines. Today the influential Moueix family owns Pomerol’s most famous estate, Château Pétrus, along with numerous other Pomerol estates. Pomerol wines, primarily Merlot blended with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, are considered softer and less tannic than left bank Bordeaux.

TYPE

Red Wine, Merlot

The Merlot grape is such a deep blue that it is named for the blackbird. It’s an early ripening grape and one of the primary varietals used In Bordeaux. Merlot is also grown in the "International style," which is harvested later to bring out more tannins and body.

VINTAGE