Pétrus 2019

Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux

Wine Spectator

The Wine Independent

Adrian van Velsen - vvWine.ch

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

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).

Winemaker Olivier Berrouet, following in his father's footsteps, continues to pursue a very classical, elegant style at Pétrus, a site naturally inclined to produce Pomerol's most muscular wine. He considers timing the date of harvest to be of the essence in avoiding excess; extraction is gentle, with daily pump-overs performed by hand during two or at most three weeks of maceration; and the modest 50% of new oak barrels employed at this address (from Taransaud, Darnajou, Séguin Moreau and Demptos) are steamed and then soaked with water for 15 days before filling to minimize their impact. So, I suspect that the 2019 vintage's power and structure arrived against his best intentions. Certainly, with essentially only one cépage (Merlot) and one soil type (blue clay) and a surface area of only just over 11 hectares, Berrouet doesn't have many options when a warm, dry vintage comes along. Power, rather than opulence, is the order of the day chez Pétrus this year, and while the 2019 is a prodigious wine, it will require notable patience of anyone wishing to see it at full maturity.

Jeb Dunnuck

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.

Decanter Magazine

No surprise that the sticky clay of Petrus has withstood the heat, keeping freshness and form. High aromatics, lush and open at first, with iris flowers, followed by plum, raspberry and blackberry fruits. High tannic mass compared to 2018 that you feel only through an undertow that anchors the fruit downwards. Evolves from red and blue fruits to black, as the tannins show their muscles, which were sleek at first and then build, flexing alongside cocoa, chocolate, liquorice root and smoke. Shows the capacity that clay has to bring power and concentration to the tannins - they measure the weight of tannins at this estate and found almost twice as many as in 2018, meaning they needed shorter and softer extraction to ensure no overload. This surprises you, changing in character as it moves through the palate, becoming darker and more serious where at first it was fruit and flowers. Brilliant.