1985 Chateau Petrus Pomerol

In January 1985 Bordeaux recorded its coldest temperatures since 1956, and the vintage was rescued by a hot, dry September and a late harvest that opened on September 29, conditions in which Merlot fared far better than Cabernet and Pomerol became the appellation of the year. Petrus is Pomerol's benchmark estate: 11.5 hectares at the highest point of the appellation, planted to Merlot on a buttonhole of blue smectite clay that holds water through dry summers. Madame Loubat, who assembled the property from the 1920s, insisted it be priced alongside the Medoc First Growths, and the Moueix family, whose negociant house had represented Petrus since the 1940s, took it over after her death in 1961; Jean-Francois Moueix and his children own it today. The 1985 was made under Christian Moueix, who directed the family's Pomerol estates, with Jean-Claude Berrouet, the oenologist who oversaw 44 vintages at Petrus before handing over to his son Olivier in 2008. Jancis Robinson MW, longtime wine critic of the Financial Times, called it "not the most opulent vintage but extremely satisfying," a classical, moderate Petrus that opens considerably with time in a decanter. It is a mature wine within its drinking window.