Tasting Notes
Vinous – 93
Tasted at the Pomerol Comparative Exploration tasting in London, the 1982 Petrus was compared directly with 1982 Le Pin and Lafleur, a week after tasting the same wine from magnum. There’s context for you. My conclusion is that magnums show much better than bottles and secondly, it lags one or two steps behind those aforementioned Pomerols. That should not detract from a great wine. It possesses a lovely bouquet with black fruit, cedar, smoke and fresh black truffles, modest in comparison to Le Pin, almost straight-laced without the disarming precision of the Lafleur. The palate has a wonderful sense of balance, the acidity just about perfect, complex but not profound. The tannin frame a mixture of red and black fruit infused with sage and white pepper, hints of leather towards the long and tender finish. If you can disassociate this Petrus with its value then it is just a delicious Pomerol. The question is: can you actually do that?
Anticipated maturity: 2018-2045
JancisRobinson.com – 19
A bottle bought from Edmund Penning-Rowsell’s cellar. Lovely and sweet – very fleshy. Much more structured than the 1990s (Latour and Cheval) just served, also blind. Denser than the Mouton 1982. Very, very easy to like.
Anticipated maturity: 1995-2025
Robert Parker – 96
Tasted at Pebbles/Zachy’s 1982 dinner in Hong Kong. I have been fortunate to taste the Petrus ’82 on several occasions. In a strange way, I am finding bottles more consistent now then several years ago ” perhaps a testament to more rigorous provenance? It is a year since I last encountered this Pomerol (also in Hong Kong ” a sign of the times I guess.) It has a vibrant bouquet with black fruit, iron filings, black truffle and undergrowth than is both mercurial and complex. The palate is medium-bodied with an almost restless intensity, a fidgeting genius. It seems to offer teasing glimpses, different facets of its personality with every sip. Quite burly on the entry, there are notes of bay leaf, cooked meat, sandalwood and sage. This might well be the finest bottles that I have tasted ” I hope they can all be like this. Tasted November 2012.
