Pétrus 2016

Jeannie Cho Lee

La Revue du Vin de France

Andreas Larsson - Tasted

Pure nose, floral, very ripe and inky fruit with blackberry, cassis, earth, tobacco, very fine oak with just a touch of coffee and vanilla. Very dense palate, silky with immense concentration of tannin, very smooth and fine with layers of floral blackberry with plum, cassis, dark chocolate, fine spices, clove, pepper and a very long, intense and elegant finish, keeps lingering for minutes and new layers emerge.

Vinum Wine Magazine

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

Deep ruby in color, here you find truffle, dark chocolate, coffee bean, cigar box, black cherry and dark plums. Full bodied, elegant, velvety, opulent, sweet and fresh, the presence on the palate is silk and velvet in the texture with purity and sweetness to the fruits. The wine is hedonistic as well as intellectual, and a little bit firm. There is serious aging potential. The wine really sticks with you, for over 60 seconds in the finish. Give this at least 15 or more years in the cellar to develop before popping a cork.

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Opaque purple-black colored, the 2016 Petrus slips effortlessly out of the glass with sanguine, seductive notes of kirsch, warm black plums, blueberry compote, red roses, Ceylon tea, violets, dark chocolate-covered cherries, licorice and cinnamon stick with wafts of iron ore, pencil lead, unsmoked cigars and crushed rocks. Full-bodied, profound and absolutely edifying on the palate, the densely packed, beautifully perfumed red and blue fruit layers possess a charge like defibrillators stimulating your heart to beat faster, each delivering achingly subtle floral and spice sparks, perfectly framed by very firm, very grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing with incredible length and taking you to depths that extend to a provocative ferrous undercurrent. Stunning.

In 2016, Pétrus produced yet another epically great wine following straight on the heels of the perfect 2015, which was a very different expression. “This 2016 is a more classical representation of the vineyard especially in terms of its structure, acidity and balance,” Olivier Berrouet told me during my visit to taste the wine in October. “It didn’t show much in the early days, but now it is all coming together. It is a very classical vintage and a very great vintage. It is never a question of quantity—it is always a question of quality. I prefer to have less power than risk the balance of the wine. The temptation is always to go large. This might make a darker, richer wine—but you can lose the balance of the wine. You have to study the basic elements all the time. The numbers of Pétrus in 2015 are the same as in 2016, but the styles are totally different. I love the 2016—it is, typically, a wine that needs time to show all it has. It shows you more and more each time.”

Jeb Dunnuck

One of the top wines in the vintage is unquestionably the 2016 Chateau Petrus, which is, as always, all Merlot aged in just over half new French oak. It's more reserved and subtle compared to the 2015, yet it’s unquestionably in the same ballpark, offering a deep ruby/purple color as well as a classy bouquet of crème de cassis, black cherries, graphite, smoke tobacco, spring flowers, and subtle spicy oak. This is a wine that builds with time in the glass and delivers a full-bodied, multi-dimensional texture, present, ripe tannins, perfect balance, and a finish that won't quit. It’s haute couture at its finest, and as I wrote multiple times in my notes, simply pure class. Hide bottles for at least 7-8 years (10-15 would be even better) and it will keep for half a century.

Decanter Magazine

The nose jumps right out, then the palate starts tunneling down through an array of dark fruit and cut herb expressions, before slowly flattening out on the mid-palate then rising vertically on the finish. An architectural expression of the vintage, ripe and precise but with great freshness. Harvest here took place between 28th September and 11th October, and the challenges of the vintage meant they had to be precise and rigorous at every moment, never letting down their guard. No green harvesting. 40hl/ha yield, 55% new oak. Lots of anthocyanins. This is soft and caressing and majors in those deceptively soft tannins that slowly but surely build up to remind you that this wine has no intention of going away for many, many years.

James Suckling

This is very fleshy and deep with so much texture and richness. It’s full-bodied yet fresh. The tobacco, white truffle, licorice and dark fruit are so impressive. It’s so exuberant and wild. It just goes on for ever. Spellbinding. Very muscular and powerful. Agile and energetic. Please give this time. Needs eight to ten years. Try from 2029.