WTN - Defying the Fates: Petrus 1972

Link to the note I've posted in Rogov's Place:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=20487

Wow!!! '72 (the year I got into the wne biz) has such a bad record, almost everywhere. Fun to read about the nice surprise!!!

I drank a number of 72, 73 and 74 clarets when they were relatively young. They could indeed be decent wines and as you'd expect, the very best producers would make the best of a bad lot. Problem was that they were not long lived wines and should have been drunk up by the end of the decade in which they were made.

That Petrus was probably as good as it got, and it would have been pretty decent much earlier on. I also recall tasting a 72 Latour that wasn't a total waste of time.

Of the bad vintages, my experience of 1965 is insufficient to know for sure, but it may be the worst in recent memory, and failing that, I have never tasted a 1977 claret that I thought worth the price of the bottle and cork, first growths not excepted. I call them Hobbesian wines, uniformly nasty, brutish and short.

PS - you were probably better off not having to resort to the 73 Mouton, an ungenerous wine from the beginning.

Hello Bill - I've responded to the copy of your post in Rogov's Place.

I've posted my notes for the other wines I've had from this remarkable cellar in Rogov's Place.

A couple years back I bought very cheaply a bottle of the '72 and '73 VCC - both, but especially the '73 - exceeded my expectations. The '72 was a nice old Claret, well worth the 25€ or so I paid for the lovely aged but classic Pomerol scents. The '73 was however wonderful and I immediately ordered the rest that the shop had (it was a bit more expensive but still cheap for an old wine) - of course it is an aged wine, but I love such aromas. I find it amazing how often gambling on a great name's "bad" vintage pays off for me...

-O