2018 - Petrus, Pomerol

The 2018 Petrus has a deep garnet purple color. It skips out of the glass with lifted scents of Morello cherries, redcurrant jelly, and fresh mulberries, plus suggestions of black olives, truffles, and underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is very firm and taut with ripe, grainy tannins and muscular fruit, finishing long and earthy. Typically for this vineyard, it will require patience!

The 2018 Petrus is every bit as grand as I thought it could be. A wine with no start and no end, the 2018 envelops all the senses from the very first taste. It is at times intellectual, while in other moments more hedonistic, but it is always a total turn-on. Silky and layered, with exquisite finesse and depth to burn, the 2018 Petrus is unquestionably the wine of the vintage on the Right Bank and one of the handful of truly unforgettable wines of the vintage. As I wrote when I tasted the 2018 from barrel, I have never tasted a young Petrus with this much sheer class. It's an absolutely brilliant effort Petrus and Technical Director Olivier Berrouet.

In a vintage that favoured Merlot, it's hard to ignore that Petrus should be on your list of wines to lay down. You won't even have to wait as long as in years such as 2016 or 2019 for this Petrus to come around, as the tannins are a little more pliable than you usually find in the early years. But there is kick and concentration here, with fleshy damson and cassis fruits, plush and luxurious with cocoa pod, grilled almonds, graphite and cigar box. 50% new oak, 3.6ph. 37hl/ha yield. Brilliant stuff from winemaker Olivier Berrouet.

Tasted blind. Very dark. Glowing shaded crimson. Intense, distinctive, concentrated. Peppery note on the complex nose. Voluptuous texture. Almost impossible to spit out. Rich. (JR)