About Petrus
The year 2004 produced Bordeaux’s largest crop since 1996, with regional yields slightly exceeding 60 hectoliters per hectare—compared with approximately 45 hectoliters per hectare in the drought-stricken 2003 vintage. An exceptionally generous fruit set created what the Bordelais call a large sortie, forcing the most conscientious estates to green-harvest severely in order to prev...
About Petrus
The year 2004 produced Bordeaux’s largest crop since 1996, with regional yields slightly exceeding 60 hectoliters per hectare—compared with approximately 45 hectoliters per hectare in the drought-stricken 2003 vintage. An exceptionally generous fruit set created what the Bordelais call a large sortie, forcing the most conscientious estates to green-harvest severely in order to prevent the vines from carrying more fruit than they could properly ripen.
After four notably dry months from April through July, the season appeared to be drifting toward drought. August then reversed course, bringing cool temperatures and rain that slowed maturation, enlarged the berries and raised concerns that the abundant crop might never achieve full phenolic ripeness. September ultimately rescued the vintage with warmer, drier weather, allowing the Merlot of Pomerol to regain concentration while preserving the naturally fresh acidity that became one of 2004’s defining signatures. Unlike the heat-shaped 2003s or the densely structured 2005s, the finest 2004 Right Bank wines tend to speak in a more restrained dialect of Bordeaux: moderate ripeness, firm tannins, aromatic clarity and a distinctly savory mineral profile.
At Pétrus, the estate’s celebrated plateau of dense blue clay provided a decisive advantage. This unusually compact soil can retain moisture during dry periods yet regulate its release as conditions change, helping Merlot ripen with exceptional continuity. The resulting wine is muscular without being ostentatious, opening with dark plum, black cherry and cassis before revealing cola, iron-rich earth, cedar, cocoa and the unmistakable truffled character associated with mature Pomerol. Its acidity is more prominent than in warmer Pétrus vintages, giving the wine a taut, vertical architecture beneath the fruit. Critics initially found it unusually backward and tannic, with Robert Parker suggesting that it might ultimately prove to be the longest-lived wine produced anywhere in Bordeaux that year.
Now entering a compelling stage of maturity, Pétrus 2004 is less about the extravagant velvet of the estate’s most celebrated years than about precision, tension and gradual revelation. It is a cerebral expression of Pétrus: born from an enormous crop that demanded ruthless selection, shaped by a summer that alternated drought with rain, and completed by the late-season reprieve that allowed Pomerol’s greatest terroir to transcend the vintage’s complications. For collectors who value classical Bordeaux structure and the subtleties that emerge only with time, the 2004 offers a particularly articulate expression of this legendary estate.
Score
93 points, Wine Spectator.
