Petrus 2012

The wine in this vintage

A damp spring, a warm summer and a harvest disrupted by October rain: in 2012 Bordeaux favoured the early-ripening Merlots of the Right Bank, picked before the bad weather, over the Cabernets of the Médoc. Pomerol was one of the most successful areas. Petrus 2012 is a wine of great elegance and depth: plum, black cherry, blackberry, cocoa, truffle and floral notes, on a rounded, fleshy palate with velvety tannins. Wine Spectator awarded it 96 points. Although it already shows some openness, it needs more time in the cellar to express itself fully and reveal its layered complexity.

The producer · Petrus

Petrus is the ultimate symbol of Pomerol and one of the most sought-after wines in the world, even though it has never been classified, since this Right Bank appellation has no official classification. Its rise is owed to Madame Edmond Loubat, who owned it in the first half of the twentieth century and turned it into a legend, and to the Moueix family, involved from 1945 first as distributors and later as owners; today the estate is headed by Jean-François Moueix, with winemaker Olivier Berrouet. The secret of Petrus lies in its soil: a seam of very dense blue clay, millions of years old, that surfaces on the top of the Pomerol plateau and regulates the vines’ water supply in a unique way. On around eleven hectares, almost exclusively Merlot is grown, hand-picked with extreme care, sometimes over just a few afternoons, so that each parcel is harvested at the perfect moment. The result is a wine of extraordinary density, opulence and tannic finesse, able to age for decades and made in very limited quantities.

Critics' scores

• 97 Wine Enthusiast
• 96 Robert Parker
• 96 Wine Spectator
• 18/20 Jancis Robinson

Technical details

Producer

Petrus

Region

Bordeaux

Country

Francia

Type

Rosso

Vintage

2012

When to drink

Not yet at its peak

Critics' average

96.3/100

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0710112