1971 Petrus
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Tasting notes
This bottle of 1971 Petrus is perhaps the best that I have encountered, completely overawing the 1970 served alongside. It boasts a gorgeous bouquet with delineated red berry fruit, pressed rose petals, hints of kirsch and a touch of sandalwood, perhaps even a little exotic compared to previous bottles. The palate is medium-bodied with seductive fleshiness on the entry, a surfeit of black truffle infused red fruit and life-affirming purity. Unlike other bottles, this example seems to meliorate with aeration, gaining intensity and depth towards the precise and tender finish. I doubt that I will find another 1971 Petrus as good as this. Tasted at the Petrus dinner at Hide restaurant in London.
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Average Score
Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
The 1971 Petrus is a wine that I have encountered three times in the space of six months (though not in the hospital, since there was no Petrus on the cardiac ward’s wine list). The last two bottles represent the best of over a dozen I have had, so either I have been lucky or it has blossomed in its dotage. This has a “warm” bouquet with scents of fireside hearth infusing the mellow red fruit, developing hints of black truffle and pressed rose petal aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly rustic tannin, sappy and showing a little more roundness than previous bottles, and perhaps more cohesion. While it does not quite match the 1975 Petrus, this is such a refined and elegant Pomerol that you cannot help falling for its charms.
The 1971 Petrus is another vintage that I have been fortunate to drink four or five times and, although whereas it once vied with the 1975 for supremacy, recent bottles suggest that it has not kept up the pace and become a little fatigued. That should not detract from what still constitutes a gorgeous wine. This bottle is actually a little fresher and more youthful than others, with perfumed red fruit, truffle and sage, later pressed flower scents. In fact, it gains complexity with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with more rustic tannins than the 1975 (something Jean-Claude broached between these two vintages). There is plenty of sappiness here, very harmonious and there is an easy-going swagger towards the finish. Whilst not as deep or as complex as the 1970 or 1975, it is entering its dotage with style. Tasted at the Petrus dinner at the Épure restaurant in Hong Kong.
This rich, fresh monster was fabulous. My only criticism is that serving it as the twelfth wine in a dinner line-up was not giving us the treat of enjoying it when our taste buds were at their freshest. It had the life, sap and savour that the 1975, glorious as it was, lacked. I think this wine may just go on and on and on. Surely the best 1971 known to wine-drinking man? Or woman. (Although I see I have an equally enthusiastic note on one bottle of Ch Latour 1971 to have come my excessively fortunate way...) (JR)
About the producer
Ask any wine-lover to name the world’s greatest fine wines, and the answer will invariably include Pétrus.