My Article: Pétrus is My Favorite Wine

I am often asked what my favorite wine is. It’s a mundane question because I like so many wines, and, of course, a lot of it depends on the moment, such as who I am with or what I am eating.

I sometimes think to myself, when I am asked the question, “Oh no. Not again.”

However, what honestly pops into my mind when someone asks, is Château Pétrus. I am sometimes embarrassed to say because the price of the wine is so high.

Yet, the famous Pomerol wine estate of Bordeaux has taken my breath away so many times over my more than 30 years as a wine critic. The nearly pure Merlot is a wondrous wine with soft and velvety tannins and a unique character of dark fruits, black olives, dark chocolate, and earth. It’s a wine that can be amazing straight from the cask as just a baby wine or 50 years later as a mature red.

I am lucky enough to drink it on a fairly regular basis. I have a number of friends in Europe, Mexico, and Asia who have good collections of Pétrus, and they like to serve the wine to their friends.

I wonder if the wine is just so good that it’s impossible NOT to drink it if you have a bottle. The word “moreish” comes to mind. It’s a word my teenage daughter likes to use when she eats something that she knows may not be the most healthy but it’s just too good not to eat more.

I am sure people who enjoy drinking Pétrus feel the same way – somehow. They know that they probably shouldn’t be drinking it because of the outrageous price – new vintages are from $1,500 to $3,000 a bottle and older ones are two to three times that. But they just can’t help themselves. The wine is just too amazing to not drink!

It wasn’t always sold at crazy prices. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the wine became famous, mostly because of the new demand from the United States at the time. Before that it was bought almost entirely in Europe and at prices well below the top wines. (My ex-wife’s family in England used to buy it by the barrel in the 1950s from the wine merchant Avery’s of Bristol!)

This is also why I am always a little suspicious of large format bottles of Pétrus from the 1950s and back. I just don’t think that the estate or negociants would bottle such a wine in double mags or larger bottles. I have seen wine merchant catalogs from the 1930s and 1920s that have magnums of Pétrus for sale. The fake wine problem is always perplexing. Stay tuned for other columns on that.

Anyway, I could go on for pages about Pétrus. And I have to get some sleep to catch an early flight tomorrow from London to New York for an amazing Pétrus wine tasting in the Hamptons covering 57 vintages. It’s over Friday and Saturday. I haven’t tasted many of the older wines since the early 1990s. The event is being organized by the Société du Vin, a new, exclusive members-only wine facility located in Bridgehampton. I am the speaker (so lucky!).

The vintages to be tasted include: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982, 1981, 1980, 1979, 1978, 1977, 1976, 1975, 1974, 1973, 1972, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1968, 1967, 1966, 1964, 1963, 1962, 1961, 1960, 1959, 1957, 1955, 1954, 1953, 1952, 1951,1949, 1948, 1947, and 1945.

I don’t think I am going to be able to sleep. Too excited.

I will write about the tasting and provide video for subscribers.