Rejected Pétrus Bottles.

Early this week, I was offered a couple of bottles of Pétrus (‘71 & ‘94) from the collection of a deceased person (I didn’t know him personally; but we had common friends). After inspection, I rejected both bottles.

Thought it would be interesting to show a photo thereof to see if anyone would like to guess why just from the photo.

Nb., the ‘71 was upper-mid shoulder; the ‘94 was
base of the neck. The ‘71 showed virtually no sediment; the ‘94 showed enough for its age.
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Bottle glass color?

You should post/have mods move to wine talk. You’ll get more traction

Proper.

Actually, I should’ve taken photos of all angles. Didn’t occur to me.

Thanks; but, it’s really no big deal. Just thought it would interest some to guess. If any mod wants to so move it; it’d be fine with me. Since I didn’t buy them, I couldn’t post any tasting notes; so figured this would be the proper place to post this.

They came from Hong Kong?

No idea. The widow told me she knows nothing about where her late husband got them. I asked one of my Chinese friends to translate the tag on the ‘71; he said it says “Pétrus” as closely it can be so written. He couldn’t tell if it was from HK, the mainland or elsewhere; not from the tag, anyway.

Well I have an empty of the 1971 that was part of a solid case purchased by one of the guys in my wine group back in 1973 or 1974. The label looks identical, except mine has Produce of France on an importer strip, not the main label.

You don’t like Merlot?

If they were represented to have been stored similarly in the same cellar I would wonder why the label on the significantly older bottle is in such better shape.

It does seem odd…very odd.

My first thought as well

That is what I was going to post.

1 Like

Yes, the label on the 1994 looks artificially “old.” Perhaps photocopied several times and then roughed up to look older. A properly stored bottle of 1994
should have a nearly pristine label.

Bruce

Because you don’t like how you look in the reflection of the pictures of the bottles?

Yup. The label’s texture also looked all wrong, and the capsule was inconsistently fresh/shiny; plus it did not bear the European recycle support symbol that, as far as I know, should appear post vintage 1990. I did double check on the net; and, the only ‘94 bottle I found offered for sale, the label of which did not bear said symbol, was one where the bottom right portion of the label (where the symbol should appear) was conveniently torn off/missing.

Well done, counsel.

Best,

Noel

PS. Add. Even assuming the bottle was genuine, the inconsistency between label & capsule could indicate that it was long stored under a strong/hot display light - which, chances are, would mean the wine itself would have been heat damaged.

N

Re: the ‘71, I did not take photos from all angles; but the embossed design of the punt was not consistent with that of the photo from a reliable merchant. That, plus the facts that:

  1. As mentioned above, upon checking with a flashlight, there appeared to be virtually no sediment which is unusual for a 40++ year old wine; much more Pétrus. I had a ‘71 Pétrus around 11 years ago; and, even then, it showed a hell of a lot more sediment than the subject bottle;

  2. The capsule, like the ‘94, looked inconsistently shiny/fresh; and,

  3. A small upturned portion of the capsule’s bottom showed a gummy residue that looked/felt like glue (which is very inconsistent).

The foregoing - plus the fact that the seller couldn’t give any assurance about the source or previous storage conditions - made it an easy pass for me (not to mention the small tag in Chinese characters on the bottom).

Best,

N

The seller was very candid, to her credit. She told me that she had no idea from where or how her late husband acquired the bottles. She couldn’t say whether or not both came from the same source.

Best,

N

No; but, now that you’ve pointed it out, maybe, subconsciously.

The Chinese tag was probably the manufacturers “best before” stamp. :grinning: