Petrus

The château

Petrus climbed to the top of Pomerol in print within 15 years. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, printed Petrus under Arnaud in 1868 among the bourgeois and first artisan growths, because Pomerol had no tier of first growths of its own yet; in 1874 it was a first growth at 12 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels), and the English edition of 1883 put it at the head of the list. In 1886 they gave it 16 tonneaux, noted that the Arnaud family had held it for more than a century, and wrote down the thing the wine is still described by: “the bouquet of the truffle is developed here to the highest degree.” By 1897 Édouard Féret’s survey of the wines of the arrondissement of Libourne had it first, at 35 tonneaux, with a rival named plainly: Vieux Château Certan disputed the rank, Petrus with a little more body, the other with a little more finesse, and each with its warm partisans.

The modern Petrus is the work of Madame Loubat and the Moueix family. After the frost of 1956 killed vines all over Pomerol, she had the survivors cut back to a stub instead of replanting, and they came back the next spring. At her death in 1961 she left a share to Jean-Pierre Moueix, who in time bought out his 2 fellow heirs. In 1964 he put Jean-Claude Berrouet, 22 years old, in charge of the winemaking, and in 1969 his son Christian in charge of the estate; ownership later passed to his elder son, Jean-François, who has begun to hand it to his own son, Jean. Olivier Berrouet has been winemaker and director since January 2008, in succession to his father.

What Petrus has is the clay. The blue clay that lies buried under gravel elsewhere on the plateau comes to the surface here, with an unusually high concentration of iron and of the clay minerals called smectites. Neal Martin, in his book On Bordeaux of 2020, calls it “the buttonhole of blue clay”: neighbors own vines on it too, but none has its whole vineyard there, as Petrus does. The clay rations the water and keeps the vines working for their fruit. The vineyard is 11.5 hectares, unchanged in size for more than 40 years, planted to Merlot, the vines 40 years old on average.

The rest is subtraction. Pomerol has never been classified, so Petrus holds no rank, in an appellation of 813 hectares and 138 growers that is 0.7% of Bordeaux. There is no château building and no second wine: lots that do not make the grand vin (the estate’s first wine) are sold off as generic Pomerol. The wine ferments in temperature-controlled concrete and ages 18 months in oak, 50% of it new. In April 2025 I tasted the 2014 and the 2003 in 2 classes on Pomerol. The 2014 showed freshness, precision and depth; the 2003 was a revelation, seamless, balanced and expressive, whatever the early worries about the heat and the low acidity of that year.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol

Classification

Michelin Guide, 3 grapes (2026)

Owners

The Moueix family, since Madame Loubat left a share to Jean-Pierre Moueix in 1961; Jean-François Moueix, then his son Jean

Direction

Olivier Berrouet, winemaker and director since January 2008, succeeding his father, Jean-Claude, in charge of the winemaking from 1964

Vineyard

11.5 hectares, unchanged for more than 40 years; vines 40 years old on average

Soil

Blue clay at the surface, high in iron and smectites, under the whole vineyard Terroir of Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot

Cellar

Temperature-controlled concrete; 18 months in oak, 50% new

Wines

Petrus; no second wine, rejected lots sold as generic Pomerol

In history

Under the Arnaud family for more than a century by 1886; a first growth of Pomerol from 1874; first of the commune from 1883