Pétrus, the name of the wine legend stems from a Roman named Petrus during the ancient Roman times, and the hill of Pétrus, where it is lies. Pétrus appeared in records all the way from the 1750s. Even though some people insist on calling it Château Pétrus, Pétrus’ estate does not exhibit any château or castle. The word “château” has never appeared on the Pétrus label. Pétrus began in the later years of the 18th century, making it one of the oldest vineyards in the Pomerol appellation — an area in Bordeaux that also boasts Le Pin. The size of the estate was about 7 hectares in 1770 when it still belonged to the Arnaud family. They began producing wine there in 1837. During the Arnaud family era, a few vintages were retrospectively curiously labelled Petrus-Arnaud.

The vineyard was replaced with largely Merlot vines in 1800 after a phylloxera attack and this was the beginning of its beautiful history. In the mid-19^th century, Pétrus was still behind two other Pomerol wineries, Vieux Château Certan and Château Trotanoy, as listed by Cocks and Féret, in their authority directory, “Bordeaux, its Wines and the Claret Country” published in French in 1850. Pétrus first came to some light during the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1878, where it won a gold medal, though Pomerol wines were still not at the level of its first growth counterparts from the Bordeaux left bank area.

In 1917, the estate was bought by M. Sabin-Douarre, the former manager of Pétrus who then decided to create the “Société Civile du Château Pétrus”. M. Sabin-Douarre frequented the restaurant of the Hôtel Loubat. Mme Edmond Loubat, the owner of Hôtel Loubat, started to acquire shares of the “Société Civile du Château Pétrus” in 1925 and eventually became the sole owner of the entire estate by the end of the second world war. Shortly afterwards, Mme Loubat granted the exclusive commercialization rights to M. Jean-Pierre Moueix, a Bordeaux négociant who owned its eponym Établissement on the Quai du Priourat in Libourne.

Driven by M. Moueix’s vision of the great potential of the Pomerol wineries and Mme Loubat’s unwavering determination to bring her winery’s reputation to the same level as the first growths, Pétrus was brought to the US and was also infamously served at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in England in 1947. Later in 1953, Mme Loubat was also famed for presenting a case of Pétrus to Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

“Pétrus was served at the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in England in 1947”

When Mme Loubat died in 1961, the estate was principally passed to her nephew and niece and part of it to M. Moueix. He eventually bought over the shares of Mme Loubat’s descendants in 1964 and 1969. The estate then increased by 5 hectares from the purchase of parcels of Château Gazin in 1969. Since then, the estate has been wholly owned by the Moueix family and from the 2008 vintage onwards, Olivier Berrouet the son of Jean-Claude Berrouet, who worked with M. Jean Pierre Moueix at the winery, has been in charge of winemaking.

Pétrus is built on a high plateau on the top of Pomerol, also known as a buttonhole, where the topsoil and the subsoil are made mostly out of dark blue clay with some gravel. The deep-lying hard soil rich in iron oxide is also known as “crasse de fer” which is approximately four century-old and  admittedly bestows part of Pétrus typicity. It’s certainly impossible to determine the exact reason or to isolate one specific factor out of Pétrus terroir why such distinctive wine is produced, it simply adds to the mythification of this legend.

The 11.5 hectares estate that Pétrus lies is like no other. The vineyard has been entirely planted with Merlot grapes since 2010. The Pétrus vines are very old and replanting only happens after 70 years. The average age of the vine is around 40 years with a planting density between 6,300 to 7,000 vines per hectare. Every year, only 30,000 bottles of Pétrus are produced.

Pétrus’ green harvesting approach yields ensures optimal concentration, maturity and quality. Up to 50% of the crop can be eliminated in the most strenuous years, leading on average to one of the lowest yields in the Bordeaux region. The grapes are hand harvested uniquely in the afternoon after the evaporation of the morning dew in order to avoid any potential quality dilution. This meticulous process is a quintessentially important to bring out the greatest expression and body character of the wine. The fermentation is then performed in cement vats. Once the malolactic fermentation is complete, the wine is aged in a majority of new oak barrels for an estimated average period between eighteen and twenty-four months before being bottled unfiltered.

Pétrus is known to be exceptionally rich, bold and concentrated, as well as aromatically deep, complex and intense. The merlot characteristics provide a consistent velvety texture which is distinctively completed with floral, truffles, chocolates, black fruits, spice, coffee, cinnamon, flavors across vintage decades. Pétrus has a remarkable appreciation potential over time. While most connoisseurs have not opened their cases from this century, Pétrus is generally approachable after at least a decade.

Since the involvement of M. Jean Pierre Moueix in 1945, only a few vintages haven’t been produced and will reminiscently be missed in a Petrus vertical collection: 1956, 1965 and 1991. Nothing from those years was offered to the public for those years because of adverse environmental conditions which could have had affected the quality and reputation of Pétrus. After a devastating frost, 1956 unexpectedly represented an extraordinary turn of events for the vineyard. Rather than replanting the decimated crop, the common solution in the region at the time, Mme Loubat decided to chop back the damaged parts of the grape plants. Called coppicing, the practice allowed the plants to reestablish, preserving the vintage and securing the reputation of Pétrus. This was a first for Pomerol.