Petrus 2017

Extremely aromatic already with lavender, violets, mulberries and lots of ripe fruit. Very generous in terms of fruit but this remains tight and compacted with long, powerful tannins. They are strong and frame a muscular and racy Petrus, but everything remains in harmony and balance.

The 2017 Petrus is simply stunning. A rich, deep and voluptuous wine endowed with rapturous beauty. Vivid and wonderfully alive, with ripe, polished tannins, the 2017 is simply impeccable. Jean-Claude Berrouet told me he had never seen a harvest at Petrus stretch out over a three full weeks. Olivier Berrouet added that the berries were quite small. He opted for longer skin contact than normal, about 30 days, with pumpovers of one volume of wine per day at the beginning of fermentation. Even in the early going, Petrus is shaping up to be truly magnificent.

The 2017 Pétrus was tasted on two occasions just over one week apart, the second on 9 April being significantly different to the first. My note comes from the second and as usual I afforded the sample 10 minutes to open. It has an expressive bouquet that is slightly confit in style with red cherry, blackberry, black truffle and light iris scents, all detailed and focused. The bouquet needs less encouragement to open than the previous two vintages. The palate is extremely well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, fresh and vivacious from the very start. At its core lies a mixture of red and black fruit laced with black truffle and cracked black pepper, a discrete spiciness towards the velvety finish and then modest salinity lingering on the aftertaste. It is the second reading that attested to the “serious” side of this Pétrus and its cerebral side. I found more grip and linearity, clearly more complexity and less fatness towards the finish and I anticipate that these facets will become more accentuated as it develops in barrel. Whilst not the greatest Pétrus that I have tasted out of barrel, Olivier Berrouet has fashioned an almost mercurial and beguiling Pomerol.

The 2017 Petrus is deep garnet-purple in color and opens with incredible notes of preserved plums, baked blueberries and cherry compote with nuances of hoisin, violets, lilacs, licorice and exotic spices—a very open-knit, flamboyant and atypical Petrus barrel sample! The palate is medium to full-bodied, rich, plush and decadent with a firm frame and layers upon layers of perfume and spices on the very long finish.