Pétrus 2018

Jeannie Cho Lee

The Wine Independent

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

The color of the ancient and priceless Sunrise Ruby replete with ornate reflections of royal purple, this wine moves you. Its perfume begins with a lightning bolt of flowers, cocoa, truffle, licorice, black cherry and even blacker plums. On the palate, the wine is extraordinarily concentrated. The fruit tastes and feels darker than usual with more command, opulence, depth and length. The flavors are expansive, moving from plummy mid-palate to a spicy, licorice, dark chocolate, mint and kirschwasser finish that remains with you for well over 60 seconds! The wine reached 14.5% alcohol with a pH of 3.7. The harvest took place September 13-27 and the wine is aging in 50% new, French oak barrels. 98-100 Pts

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2018 Petrus has retained its opaque purple-black color after bottling, foreshadowing the seemingly frozen-in-time glacial pace at which this wine is proceeding. It opens very reluctantly, requiring considerable air with vigorous swirling and doggedly demands a few hours before it offers glimpses at this slumbering giant of a wine. As it eventually unfurls, it slowly morphs into a powerful, fantastically pure nose of preserved plums, blackberry preserves and blueberry compote, followed by nuances of molten licorice, dark chocolate, black truffles, iron ore and, still later, floral notions of lilacs and rose oil come through. The full-bodied palate is taut, muscular and oh-so-tightly wound at this stage, revealing peeks at many, many layers of perfectly ripe black and blue fruits, exotic spices and earthy notions for which words simply fail. The texture is at once rock solid and fantastically plush, with impeccably knit freshness, finishing so long you really can't taste or think of anything else for the rest of the day. Here is a heart-stopping titan that puts paid to all those naysayers who contest that perfection in wine cannot exist. It will require a good 8-10 years to hit its stride, then it is very likely to outlive us all, but you will want to make certain you drink this one before you go.

Olivier Berrouet was pretty relaxed when I caught up with him for primeurs. The calm within a storm of activity. “People who worked hard didn’t have difficulties with the mildew,” he told me. “It was a wet and cool spring. A small window at the end of May and the start of June provided ideal flowering. The start was tricky but not impossible,” he shrugged. As for the dry conditions that followed, he said, “During July and August, we had just one-third of the average rainfall. A little water helped to preserve the fruit. We received 25-30 millimeters at the end of August and beginning of September, which helped to finish the maturation.”

Harvest occurred over a two week period at Petrus. They were finished by September 27. “From the beginning, we knew we had something great,” continued Berrouet. “We had to be patient to pick at the right time each block. Color, flavors, tannins—everything coming out of the tank was complex—we had a longer fermentation than usual, but we did not move the wine as much. We wanted to get the flesh and structure...but not too much. The quality of the tannins and the finish are essential to great wine in 2018. I love the aromatic complexity, iris, mineral taste, a very lush vintage. It is a powerful vintage—we know that—no need to overdo it on the vinification.”

Berrouet’s first child was born in 2018. Many years from now, she will be able to share this edifying, legendary vintage of Petrus with her children and grandchildren, remembering this immortal, evocative piece of land and her very talented father who so beautifully managed to capture her birth year in a bottle.

Jeb Dunnuck

The 2018 Chateau Petrus is a brilliant wine that has perfection written all over it, and it’s unquestionably one of the most powerful, opulent wines in the vintage. As always, it’s 100% Merlot and offers a heavenly bouquet of cassis, smoke, earth, graphite, and beautiful liquid violets. Full-bodied, deep, and opulent on the palate, I must have written “huge wine!” three or four times in my notes, and despite all its power and richness, it’s seamless, light on its feet, and already hard to resist. Possessing terrific mid-palate depth, sweet tannins, and a finish that ranks with the greatest wines out there, Merlot or any wine for that matter, doesn’t get better. If you’re lucky enough to have a few bottles of this elixir, do your best to give bottles 7-8 years in the cellar, and I suspect it will keep for 40-50 years.

Decanter Magazine

There is an intensity, concentration and richness to the fruit in this wine with the one-two sleight of hand between density and elegance that everyone talks about but few people actually get right.This is unquestionably full of plush yet tight cassis, blueberry, tobacco, graphite, chocolate and slate with a fresh mint finish, but it’s elegant and pure, full of pleasure and juice with tannins that have the silky hidden power that is so cherished in Petrus.Grape skins were thick at harvest, with huge tannic potential, but there is an approachability to this wine that makes it one of the more elegant Petrus’ of recent years with so much hidden that by the time the tannins and power have built up, you are enveloped by them almost without noticing. To achieve all this, they kept extraction careful and light, just a little longer than usual but as an infusion, with tiny amounts of pumping juice over the skins.The harvest took place between 13 September and 27 September. 50% new oak. A yield of 37hl/ha which is relatively normal here.

James Suckling

This wine leaves me speechless. It has so much intensity and density with fantastic ripe fruit with spices, dark berries and walnuts and hazelnuts Currants and licorice. Violets and earth. Full-bodied, very, very tannic yet polished and beautiful. Lasts forever on the palate. Reminds me of the great 1998.