Château Pétrus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pétrus is a red Bordeaux wine of the Pomerol appellation made almost entirely from the Merlot grape. The estate belongs to the family of the Libourne wine merchant Moueix. Although the wines of Pomerol have never been classified, Pétrus is now one of the most highly rated and expensive wines in the world,^[1] along with the First Growths of the left bank of the Gironde: châteaux Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Margaux and Mouton Rothschild, as well as Ausone and Cheval Blanc from the neighbouring right bank appellation of Saint-Émilion.

1 History
2 Vineyard
3 Production
4 In popular culture
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

Château Pétrus presentation card dated 1931, with the title "château", demonstrating the designs of the early 20th century, the label, cork, case and capsule markings.

Owned by the Arnaud family for the better part of 200 years until the end of the World War II, Pétrus was then sold to Mme Loubat, who had progressively acquired the property since 1925. On her death in 1961, the estate was passed to her family, who eventually sold a half share in 1964 to Jean-Pierre Moueix. Moueix himself had set up a negociant business Établissements Jean-Pierre Moueix, based in Libourne and gradually began acquired Right Bank châteaux. Following the death of Jean-Pierre Moueix in 2003, his elder son Jean-François is the gérant of Château Pétrus, while, Christian Moueix, his second son, manages the production.

There is no real château physically on the estate, which explains why the wine is usually simply referred to as Pétrus, and not Château Pétrus.

[edit] Vineyard

The 11.4 hectare vineyard of Pétrus is located on a plateau in the eastern portion of Pomerol, planted with the grape varieties of 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. The soil consists of a high percentage of iron-rich clay, more than is contained in surrounding properties.^{[citation needed]} The estate was among the first in Bordeaux to implement green-harvesting as a way to lower crop yields and raise the quality of the remaining grapes. The yield is among the lowest in Bordeaux partly through éclaircissage or green harvest to concentrate the power and quality of the remaining crop (eliminating up to 50% of the crop in certain years).

[edit] Production

The grapes are brought in entirely by hand over a period of two to three days and fermented in temperature controlled concrete tanks. The young wine is aged in new French oak for 20 months. A severe pre-assemblage vat selection is carried out and certain parcels are rejected from the Grand Vin. Production, in comparison to other Bordeaux, is minute and an average year might yield at most 2,500 cases. In recent vintages such as 2003 this average has been sharply reduced.

[edit] In popular culture

A vintage of Pétrus was included in the Halekulani Wine Tasting of 2000

In Thomas Harris' series of books about Dr Hannibal Lecter, Lecter serves a Château Pétrus Bordeaux with the "sweetbreads" of a Baltimore Philharmonic flautist.

Kanzaki Shizuku compared a 1970 vintage of Pétrus to a luxury ocean liner in the Japanese wine comic Les Gouttes de Dieu.

A Pétrus features in the plot of Alexander McCall Smith's Espresso Tales.

In the film Sideways, producers originally wanted Miles' dust-collecting bottle of wine to be a bottle of Pétrus, but the company denied permission.^[2]