1986 Château Petrus

The 1986 Petrus is one of the very few cases, perhaps the only one, where I prefer this vintage to the 1985. That said it is no top tier Petrus. It has a conservative bouquet with plenty of earthy/undergrowth aromas and you wish there was more fruit. The palate is well balanced with decent substance, but perhaps like the 1985, it is hampered by a nagging sense of flatness and lack of tension. This might possibly be due to the wine being filtered at the time. Then again, it was not a great Right Bank vintage. Bottles should be drunk over the next few years as I cannot envisage improvement in the future. Tasted at the Petrus dinner at the Épure restaurant in Hong Kong.

This is another wine made during the period when Christian Moueix and his conservative oenologist, Jean-Charles Berrouet, were obviously harvesting very early and also, to my mind, doing entirely too much fining and filtration before the wine got in bottle. My cask tasting notes were significantly higher on all the vintages in the early to mid-eighties, but as most of the wines have aged in the bottle, they have become increasingly weedy, herbaceous, with Medoc-like austerity and excessive tannins for the meager fruit. The 1986 is showing medium ruby/garnet color with considerable amber at the edge. The indifferent bouquet offers up notes of roasted vegetables, Japanese green tea, some smoke, a hint of sweet cherry, and some loamy, earthy, almost mushroomy notes in the background. The wine is austere on the palate, with high tannin and moderate fruit. For Petrus, this is a major disappointment and continues to decline in quality. Anticipated maturity: Now-2010. Last tasted, 11/02.

Lively crimson. Much richer and sweeter than Le Pin. Not glorious, and even with a slightly metallic note. Still chewy and well behind the other two top Pomerols noted here in terms of evolution. (JR)