I was so waiting for Maureen to chime in! Please please explain! I’m fascinated by this and want to learn more! (Not that I’m in the market for older Petrus…but just super super curious!)
While I am no expert in BDX by any means, I was going to say one must be very careful when claiming something from many many decades ago is incorrect based on what has been done in the past few decades.
Was Petrus still selling wine in barrel to other merchants back then? It is my understanding that anything bottled at the estate had their cork, and all others had the name of the merchant (Army Navy Stores - Berry Bros etc) - I wouldn’t dismiss this as a fake so fast Jeff-
I am generally not aware of BB&R or Army Navy or other English/Irish merchants using corks with their name branded on them unless it was a BOB bottling. Most had the actual producer and vintage on them. That said I’m sure there was exceptions as my experience with lots of very old Port bottlings from them does have some slight inconsistencies.
True enough, but the label is that of a chateau-bottled wine, not merchant-bottled: all the merchants, whether Army & Navy, Grants, Berry Bros, etc all used their own labels.
The important thing is that the cork might well be correct for a Chateau-bottled wine from that era. Compare the cork stamp depicted in the image I linked to with the cork from Andrew’s bottle.
Thanks for the comments William and Maureen, I really appreciate it. William, the chateau card you found definitely matches the cork I had. It’s a bit hard to tell in the photo I linked but the capsule also appeared correct, a three spire building was clearly visible when I inspected it.
I’m now curious to know when the cork design was changed. I suspect in future I’ll attend another tasting that involves aged Petrus and that would be valuable knowledge for such an occasion.
Both cork and capsule look perfectly normal showing the right age related patina.
Thanks to William and Maureen for offering, respectively, evidence and professional experience to back up my first reaction to this photo.
The photo of the bottle further confirms the authenticity of this gem. No wonder it was a beauty to imbibe…back in my youth the sensous 1953 was - together with its stylistic opposite, the masculine 1959 - my favourite vintages from a particularly successful decade.
Thomas Keim wrote:
Was Petrus still selling wine in barrel to other merchants back then? It is my understanding that anything bottled at the estate had their cork, > and all others had the > > name of the merchant > (Army Navy Stores - Berry Bros etc) - I wouldn’t dismiss this as a fake so fast Jeff-
Andy Velebil wrote:
I am generally not aware of BB&R or Army Navy or other English/Irish merchants using corks with their name branded on them unless it was a BOB bottling. Most had the > actual producer and vintage > on them. That said I’m sure there [tb]was exceptions as my[/b] > experience with lots of very old Port bottlings > from them does have some slight inconsistencies.
Regarding non-Chateau bottlings I must have opened close to a hundred classified Bordeaux - all from Danish merchants - and to my recollection they all wore blank corks.
To support the theory that this may well have been the case in other European markets, there is a post today from Nicos Neocleous (TN:1966,1959 and 1933) with photos of blank corks from two such clarets (1966 and 1959).
Regarding Vintage Port the procedures might well have been different.
As I just posted, if Maureen says it’s a real cork, she is probably correct. Never had the 1953. Earlier this year, I was served a 1955 Petrus purchased from Petrus on release and has remained in the families cellars since it was delivered. I did’t take a picture of the cork. But I shot a close up of the label.
I think it was still common practice to sell a portion of their harvest to negociants in Belgium and England at that point in time. Negociants could brand the corks as they wished and print up their own labels as well. During the 1950’s, Petrus was probably priced between a First Growth and a Second Growth. It was not nearly as famous or in demand for collectors like it is today.
I wouldn’t dismiss this as a fake so fast Jeff
FWIW, I dismiss almost every old Petrus, Lafleur, famous vintages of Cheval Blanc, Latour a Pomerol etc as not being real. The majority of what is out there is overwhelming fake!
I sent a pic of the cork to Petrus. If they comment, I will post their response.
So this is a third party labeled 1947 that I saw on Instagram. I don’t know much French but it appears to have an abbreviated word for Chateau. Given Jeff’s comments, would it be likely that the negociant would have added the Chateau word, or is this likely a counterfeit.
I totally agree William- the cork here looked very authentic to me - And every negociant bottling I’ve had from a number of Chateaux had the negociant’s cork - not the domaine’s cork -
That’s an interesting photo David. Jeff can obviously chime in further but on his web site there’s a photo of a number of Petrus bottles, including one that appears to be a negociant bottling from the 1947 vintage. They appear similar but are obviously different.
Furthermore in light of the chateau card image William referenced earlier I decided to have another look at the capsule photo I have in the full resolution. I ended up cropping and rotating the image to make it easier to look at. It definitely appears correct according to the chateau card.
Based on the clearer photo in Andrew’s post, this appears/purports to be a Belgian negotiant bottling.
While that’s possible, if I were faking, it would be very tempting to manufacturer a negotiant bottling, because less is known about those in many cases, and the negotiant may not be around.
I dug out The Great Vintage Wine Book, where Michael Broadbent describes a chateau-bottled 47 tasted in 1971 as “incredibly deep coloured, opaque, fully mature – brown-tinged; heavy, hot vintage ‘burnt’ bouquet, classic, showing considerable maturity… a fabulous wine.” A Belgian negotiant bottling sampled in 1977 was also very good, he said.
From his description of the the wine as “fully mature” 44 years ago, you’d have to ask if a bottle sampled now that tastes fresh is real.
One of the most striking things to me about these old bottles is that everyone oohs and ahs. Have you ever seen notes on a top 45 or 47 that was cooked or spoiled by VA. I haven’t. Tellingly, Rudy K never served a spoiled or over-the-hill bottle, from what I could tell. I think that says a lot about the proportion of fakes: There are simply too many pristine tasting 50+ year old wines.
As Jeff said, you have to be highly skeptical of all 45s, 47, 53s. Given the miniscule production of Petrus, in particular, what are the odds that a bottle purchased recent is authentic? How many real bottles have survived in a state where they could be sold (decent ullage, no leakage). The statistics are against you.
David. I think that yours is a Vander Meulen bottle ( negotiant from Oostende , Belgium ) .
It is very difficult to know whether an old Petrus is real or not . That is because there is no other Bordeaux that can age so well and retain freshness as Petrus. Even Ausone does not ( I’m not saying better or worse , just different ) .
Over the last years , I’ve tasted numerous Petrus . Both 1950 and 1959 were incredibly pure , fresh and powerful , something you would never expect from such old wines . But these wines were bought on release , provenance is 100 % correct . The 1949 and 1964 were equally exciting wines , but much more in style with what you would expect : aging , with tertiary aroma’s , lighter in style as most aging wines show .
It is relatively well known that most high end Pomerols were bought in Belgium ( and to a lesser extent in England ) by local negotiants . Most of them bought barrels and did the elevage and bottling themselves . Petrus usually provided the negotiants with labels but not always . Same with the corks . As there have been more than 50 negotiants in Belgium alone who bought barrels Petrus , how can anybody ever claim this is right and this is fake ? It’s impossible , unless you know who bought it , when and from where .
And if you see a double magnum Petrus from the 40-ies or 50-ies , it’s from Hardy or Rudy…