Château Petit-Village 1998

The 1998 vintage in Pomerol

Vintage benchmark: 96/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)

Vintage character: The August heatwave ripened the merlots ahead of the rains: the great Pomerol vintage, rich, velvety and of exceptional ageing potential.

Overall reading of the year’s season across Pomerol. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.

Tasting

The body of this Château Petit-Village 1998 retains all the power shown by the vintage from the outset. The incomparable velvety quality of its tannins remains. Time has brought greater complexity to the wine. Even its colour displays a shimmering, velvety palette of fine ruby with very light amber highlights. The nose is powerful, with notes of cherry and undergrowth. The palate is ample, fleshy and very long. The promising 1998 has indeed become one of Pomerol's benchmark great vintages. It still has a long life ahead of it.

Blend of the 1998 vintage

Figures from the 1998 sheet

• 13 % vol.Alcohol
• 30 yrsVine age
• 30,000 bottlesProduction

Winemaking

Follows the meticulous work of vinification, plot by plot, for 25 days, in thermo-regulated vats which offer the possibility of personalized treatment.

Ageing

15 months in barrels, 65% in new barrels, 35% in one-year-old barrels

Terroir

Château Le Petit-Village lies at the heart of Pomerol, on a magnificent clay-gravel plateau. It is a single-block vineyard of 10.5 hectares forming a triangle. Its terroir is composed of deep gravels coated with light sandy clays over a subsoil of alios known as crasse de fer, characteristic of the great wines of Pomerol. Every terroir has a grape variety that remains true to it. At Château Petit-Village, each plot, with its own personality, is planted with the variety suited to it. Merlot predominates on the property (75%): it provides the flesh of the wine and gives it its velvety texture, its roundness and its generosity. To this are added Cabernet Franc (18%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (7%), varieties essential for structure and complexity.