Chateau La Fleur Petrus 2003

Chateau La Fleur Petrus 2003, Jean-Pierre Moueix’s purchase of La Fleur-Petrus is the best thing to ever happen to the estate. This is a man who put the Right Bank in the spotlight where it belonged through his passion and knowledge for the area. The torch of this wonderful talent is today carried and replicated by his son, Christian, who in 2008 became Decanter’s Man of the Year- the first producer ever from the Right Bank to do so. Even more so than his father, Moueix is a perfectionist and has been rewarded by seeing the quality of his wines shoot up- particularly since 1998. Like all châteaux within this appellation, La Fleur-Petrus is unclassified, and yet today it is considered among the top growths in Pomerol. In fact, La Fleur-Petrus is one of the wine insider’s best kept secret- possessing a level of quality approaching, if not equalling the very best in Pomerol and a character quite similar to JP Moueix stablemates Pétrus and Trotanoy but with a far more approachable price tag.

Of late, Left Bank First-Growths that saw their prices super-inflate following frenzied mass-buying from Far East consumers, and especially China, have been falling steadily back to earth. Now estates on the Right Bank are beginning to fill that vacuum and we are experiencing a phase of maturing and diversifying buying behaviour from these very markets. In 2011, Aussino Cellars, one of the largest and most powerful wine retailers in China announced its attention to shift the focus of promotion onto Right Bank properties, particularly those within Pomerol.

Shortly afterwards La Fleur-Petrus made it onto Robert Parker Jr’s ‘Magical 20’ which was presented in Hong Kong: a carefully crafted list of estates that ‘produce wines of “first growth quality” although technically not first growths…and because of that are under-valued and very smart acquisitions’. With this in mind, the reasonably priced and high-scoring Fleur-Petrus is an investment opportunity that demands consideration.