CHATEAU PETRUS POMEROL GRAND VIN BORDEAUX FRANCE 2007

The 2007 Petrus is certainly one of the over-performers in an otherwise mediocre vintage, although you still have to pay through the nose for a bottle. Served alongside the 2009 and 2010, it has impressive fruit concentration with a mixture of red and black fruit, those traits of black truffle and pain d’épices still evident as displayed on previous bottles. And likewise, the 2007 Petrus does respond to aeration, gaining a little weight and girth in the glass, even if it must lie in the shadow of the 2009 and 2010 (an unfair comparison in many ways). This is probably beginning to drink nicely with 11 years on the clock and should drink well for another fifteen. Tasted blind at a private dinner in Hong Kong. -- Neal Martin 92

Bright red-ruby. Scented nose offers violet, minerals, menthol, tobacco leaf and pipe tobacco. The palate displays lovely subtle intensity and inner-mouth perfume, with precise flavors of red fruits, minerals and mint expanding and rising on the firm back end. Finishes with fine-grained tannins and a light touch. With 24 hours in the recorked bottle, this showed a somewhat darker, deeper fruit quality, with the menthol and mineral notes coming to the fore. Should repay a few years in the bottle but shows the fairly soft structure characteristic of the year. -- Stephen Tanzer 92