CHÂTEAU PETIT VILLAGE
2018 Pomerol
Dark fruited nose. The mid palate is enveloped by dense juice. It has a big feel to it. Mineral elements break up the fruit flavours. Grippy tannins provide welcome structure. Works well. Drinking range: 2025 - 2035L&S (Apr 2019)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
Black cherry, clove, cedar and dried earth on the nose. Some vanilla and licorice. It’s medium-bodied with firm, chewy tannins. Some wet earth. Polished and layered, with wonderful freshness, too. Very tight now. Better from 2025. Rating: 96 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Feb 2021)
From the upper portion of the plateau, not far from Cheval Blanc and Conseillante, the 2018 Château Petit-Village is based on 72% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon that sees 40% new oak. Ruby/purple-colored with a lighter rim, it has a juicy bouquet of blackberries, cherries, spice, dried earth, and spice box. Medium to full-bodied, nicely balanced, with solid tannins and outstanding length, it's a charming Pomerol to drink on release and over the following 10-15 years. Rating: 91-93 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (May 2019)
72% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon. 80% old vines. 15 months in oak, 40% new. Spanish technical director Diana Berrouet-Garcia is married to J-F Berrouet, son of Petrus's Jean-Claude. Barrel sample. Darkest cherry red. Subtly spicy dark-fruited nose, quite restrained though the sample is relatively cold. Opens up to a more pencil-like perfume. Upright, and tastes as if there is more Cabernet Sauvignon than there is, perhaps because the Cabernet Sauvignon was so intense this year so that it needed to be infused not extracted, as many winemakers said. The tannins are fine and fresh, deceptively delicate. Light on its feet and fresh but long with a touch of dark chocolate on the finish. The tannins divert you from the sweetness of fruit. (JH) Drinking range: 2024 - 2030 Rating: 17 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2019)
Yields are down this year at Petit Village. They had a little coulure and battled a serious attack of mildew. Later, winds from the north dehydrated some fruit. In the end, they came in at 35 hectoliters per hectare. A blend of 72% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, the deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Petit Village springs from the glass with bold expressions of warm plums, Black Forest cake, black raspberries and kirsch plus hints of rose petals, chocolate box and spearmint. The palate is full and generously fruited with a firm frame of rounded tannins that have just a bit of chew, finishing with soft-spoken freshness and fragrance. Rating: 90-92 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (Apr 2019)
The beautiful depth of fruit is very impressive with a fantastic center palate of full fruit, yet so agile and floating on the palate. The fine-grained tannins kick in at the end. Very fresh and racy. Rating: 96-97 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2019)
This dense wine is richly structured by firm black-fruit flavors. It has a solid core that is concentrated yet balanced by a fine freshness that is typical of the vintage. Rating: 93 Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast www.winemag.com (Apr 2019)
This is a bigger vintage than some years at Petit-Village, with an excellent balance and an impressive swagger, giving notes of pencil lead and liquorice through the mid palate that give it a fairly Left Bank feel. There is clear concentration here with raspberry fruits that have an attractive floral edge and an abundance of silky and plump tannins. They are HVE3 but not organic and had a yield still lower than usual at 23hl/ha due to mildew and difficult fruit set which meant extremely careful sorting was required. 40% new oak was used. Winemaker Dania Berrouet-Garcia. Drinking range: 2026 - 2040 Rating: 93 Jane Anson, Decanter (Mar 2019)
Château Petit Village
Up on the Pomerol plateau, just east of Catusseau, on ideal gravel and clay soil is Château Petit Village. A habitually complicated but unremarkable history comes to life with its purchase, in 1919 by the Ginestet family. This brought Petit Village into common ownership with Château Cos’d’Estournel and, later, Château Margaux. Despite its illustrious stable-mates, the Ginestet family’s tenure coincided with difficult times for Bordeaux estates, culminating in the disastrous frost of 1956 which wiped out vineyards across the region. In a move that seems bizarre in hindsight, much of Petit Village was replanted with Cabernet Sauvignon which made up an untypical greater portion of the vineyards until the 1970’s. Bruno Prats took control in 1971, having married into the family, and immediately set about replacing most of the Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and modernising the winery, but sold Petit Village in 1989 in order to concentrate his efforts on Cos d’Estournel. The new owners of Château Petit Village were AXA Millésimes, who own it to this day, along with Château Pichon Longueville Baron in Pauillac and Château Suduiraut in Sauternes as well as operations in Hungary and Portugal. AXA’s stewardship has seen Jean Michel Cazes (of Lynch Bages fame) and latterly Christian Seely overseeing considerable improvements at Petit Village. One of the more noticeable improvements has been the building of a starkly modern extension to the winery. The 10.5ha of vineyards sit in a single triangular block wedged between Conseillante, Vieux Château Certan, Certan de May and Beauregard. Le Pin sits near enough to be counted as a neighbour. There are 75% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Franc, with the residual 7% Cabernet Sauvignon being among the highest proportions in Pomerol. The average age of the vines in 35 years old, although one plot of Merlot remains that was planted 1947.
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those on the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do contact our private client team via email or on 020 7018 0187.
Ordering
Prices are all in bond by the case size stated.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment to buy wines on release, as long as the release price is within the upper and lower price bands set by you on the pre-order form. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability but providing this firm commitment to buy effectively gives you priority and is a good idea for the most desirable wines.
Wines listed on the website can be ordered in the usual way via the website wishlist order form. You can also send orders directly to our private client team via email. Please note that, for the most sought-after wines, priority will be given to those who ordered the same wines last year and to those that have pre-ordered.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of email confirmation. Pre-orders are not binding if the release price is above your upper price band.
Invoices are all raised at the in bond price (excluding any duty and VAT) which will become payable at the prevailing rates when the wines arrive in the UK, should you wish to take duty paid delivery.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We regret we cannot accept credit cards for en primeur orders. We reserve the right to apply a dunning charge of 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (at LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £500. Orders below this total will be charged an administration and handling fee of £16.50+ VAT when invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery of 2022 Bordeaux bought en primeur is expected during 2025. Delivery dates may vary as wines are shipped from Bordeaux at different times.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes). Immediate payment of invoices is then required by cash, cheque, debit card or bank transfer. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option but please note that confirmed orders are still binding even if the final invoice has not yet been issued.
Please specify on your wishlist order form where you would like the wines shipped on arrival in the UK. If this is to a third-party bonded warehouse, please specify the relevant account details. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue a second invoice for duty and VAT at the prevailing rate when the wines are available for delivery.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the format you want. While most of our listings are for 75cl bottles, we can source wines in any format that is offered by the Château. Please note that format requests cannot be changed once wines have been invoiced. Additional charges for special formats do apply and are as follows:-
- +£18.00 per case of 12 half-bottles
- +£30.00 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£7.50 per case of 3 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£11.00 per case of 6 Magnums
- +£45.00 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£60.00 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.
Storage Options:
Wines bought en primeur won't arrive in the UK until 2025. If you do not wish to take home delivery at that point, you may wish to consider where you would like the wines shipped. Lea & Sandeman offers duty paid and in bond storage through a dedicated storage company called Elephant Storage. For more details on the terms and fees associated with storage please go to our Storage Homepage or contact our private client team for more information.