5K Subscriber Review - Chateau Petrus 1998 Trophy Wine Review

The name “Chateau Petrus” comes from “St. Peter” (Petrus in Greek), meaning “rock.” During the warmer months, the soil at Chateau Petrus dry and becomes as hard as a rock.

Chateau Pétrus is located in the Pomerol appellation near its eastern border to Saint-Émilion. The estate is 11.4 hectares (28 acres) in size and since 2010, the wine is made 100% of Merlot grapes. The estate is owned by Jean-François Moueix and his children.

The original 7-hectare (17-acre) vineyard was purchased by the Arnaud family in 1770. During its early history, it was ranked behind Vieux Château Certan and alongside Château Trotanoy. Some vintages of this period were labelled Petrus-Arnaud. In 1917, the Arnaud family had to sell the vineyard to La Société Civile du Château Pétrus, which was created by M. Sabin-Douarre, who was a former manager of Petrus. Sabin-Douarre loved to dining at the best restaurant in the Right Bank, l’Hotel Loubat owned by Madame Loubat. Between around 1929-1945 Madame Loubat began purchasing shares of Petrus from the Sabin-Douarre family and by 1945, she was the sole owner of Petrus. At the same time, Jean-Pierre Moueix became the exclusive seller of Pétrus.

In 1956, the winter frost devastated the grapevines of the Bordeaux region and killed two-thirds of the Pétrus vineyard. Madame Loubat decided not to replant but to coppice (cut back severely) the vines on surviving rootstocks. This process had been previously been untried in the region but it was successful.

Madame Loubat died in 1961 and the estate was divided between a niece and nephew. A share was left to Jean-Pierre Moueix to break any deadlock between them and to ensure Moueix' continued influence on the winery. In 1964, Jean-Pierre Moueix bought tall of the shares of Petrus and hired the oenologist Jean-Claude Berrouet to replace Émile Peynaud, who had been employed as a part-time consultant. In 1969, 5 hectares (12 acres) of vineyard were purchased from Château Gazin.

When Jean-Pierre Moueix died in 2003, he was succeeded by his son Jean-François Moueix, head of Groupe Duclot, When Jean-Claude Berrouet retired as technical director of the winery after 45 vintages in 2008, he was replaced by his son Olivier Berrouet, who now manages the vineyard and the winemaking.

In September 2018, it was announced that 20 percent of the ownership of Petrus had been sold to Colombian-American billionaire Alejandro Santo Domingo in 2016.

Petrus is located on top of a 20-hectare (49-acre) island mound, the Pétrus boutonnière or buttonhole. Pétrus' vineyard possesses topsoil and subsoil high in iron-rich blue clay that differs from neighbouring vineyards, where the soil is a mixture of gravel-sand or clay-sand. The clay soils of Petrus are at least 40 million years old whereas the gravel on the surrounding plateau is only 1 million years old. The blue clay is so hard, that the roots cannot penetrate and the vines quickly grow sideways to find nutrition. When this type of clay absorbs water, it becomes impermeable. The water molecules are able to penetrate the interlayer, molecular spaces of the clay. When the dry summer months arrive, the vines are still able to find moisture. The blue clay of Petrus creates grapes with the highest level of tannins in Pomerol while at the same time, creating tannins that are soft in texture. The majority of the patch of blue clay on the Pomerol plateau is about 20 hectares in total. Petrus is unique as its entire 11.5-hectare vineyard is right on top of the clay. Neighboring vineyards only have a portion of blue clay in their soil.

About 30,000 bottles of Petrus is produced each year. The grapes are hand harvested over two to three days. The wine is aged between 12 and 16 months in oak barrel (50% new)