FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 9
Petrus 2015
From a clay buttonhole in the middle of Pomerol, a winemaker whose biggest fear in 2015 was doing too much made a Merlot that drew perfect scores from several critics and a 16 out of 20 from one who tasted it blind.
- Maker
- Petrus
- By price in wine
- 12 of 100
Create a free account to see every recorded price and every grade.
Create a free account- Producer
- Petrus, Pomerol, Bordeaux (formerly Chateau Petrus)
- Owners
- Jean-Francois Moueix and his children; a 20% stake was sold to Alejandro Santo Domingo, confirmed in 2018
- Vineyard
- About 11.4 hectares on a plateau in eastern Pomerol
- Grape
- 100% Merlot
- Vintage
- 2015, picked between mid-September and September 29
- Winemaker
- Olivier Berrouet, in charge since the 2008 vintage
- Alcohol
- 14.6% by one report, pH 3.7
- Made
- About 2,500 cases of the 2015, by one critic's count
- Classification
- None: Pomerol has never been classified
- Second wine
- None
A farm that outran the first growths
Petrus is a small estate in the Pomerol appellation of Bordeaux, near its eastern border with Saint-Emilion. Its vineyard covers about 11.4 hectares, it makes a red wine entirely from Merlot (since the end of 2010), and it makes no second wine. Pomerol's wines have never been officially classified, but Petrus is widely regarded as the outstanding wine of the appellation, and with Le Pin it ranks consistently among the most expensive wines in the world.
The estate belonged to the Arnaud family from the end of the 18th century, and the name first appears in records in 1837. In the 1868 edition of the Bordeaux reference Cocks & Feret it was ranked behind Vieux Chateau Certan and alongside Trotanoy, and some vintages of the period were labeled Petrus-Arnaud. A gold medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878 established its price at the level of a Medoc second growth, the first Pomerol to reach that level.
The origin of the name is not settled. It is tied to Saint Peter, Petrus in Latin, and the estate's label and logo show two large keys, the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven that Peter holds. Another explanation is that it is a place name, from the hill of Petrus where the estate sits. The buildings are not grand: for much of its existence the property was more or less a farm.
Madame Loubat, the Moueix family and the Berrouets
In 1917 the Arnauds sold, and a shareholding company was set up. Around 1925 Madame Edmond Loubat, owner of the Hotel Loubat in Libourne, began buying shares, and by 1945 she owned the estate outright. That year Jean-Pierre Moueix, a negociant in Libourne, won exclusive selling rights, and Petrus's international reputation began to grow. In 1947 Madame Loubat gave two magnums of the 1938 to the Lord Mayor of London for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth.
After the frost of 1956 killed two-thirds of the vineyard, Madame Loubat chose not to replant but to cut the surviving vines back hard on their own rootstocks, a technique untried in the region that kept the vines' average age high. In the 1960s the New York restaurateur Henri Soule poured Petrus at Le Pavillon, and the wine writer Alexis Lichine said it became a status symbol after that.
Madame Loubat died in 1961. In 1964 Jean-Pierre Moueix bought out one heir, and the oenologist Jean-Claude Berrouet became permanently attached to Petrus. In 1969 the estate bought 5 hectares from neighboring Chateau Gazin, taking it from 7 to 11.4 hectares. After Jean-Pierre Moueix died in 2003, his son Jean-Francois became owner. When Jean-Claude Berrouet retired after decades of vintages, his son Olivier took over the vineyard and winemaking, with 2008 as his first vintage.
In September 2018 Jean-Francois Moueix's circle confirmed that 20 percent of the capital had been sold to the Colombian-American billionaire Alejandro Santo Domingo.
2015: resisting temptation
The Petrus vineyard sits on a 20-hectare mound known as the Petrus boutonniere, or buttonhole, whose topsoil and subsoil are rich in iron-laden clay, unlike the gravel-sand and clay-sand of its neighbors. The estate was among the first in Bordeaux to thin its crop in summer to concentrate the remaining grapes.
In 2015 Pomerol had adequate winter rain, a consistently warm summer without scorching spikes, and a fine Indian summer at harvest. Petrus picked between mid-September and September 29; one critic gives the start as September 14 and another as September 15, and the shears were used on only six of those days. The critic Jeff Leve reported that the hang time ran 50 to 60 days, against close to 45 in most years, and that the wine reached 14.6% alcohol at pH 3.7. Serena Sutcliffe wrote that the yield, 40 hectoliters per hectare, was the best since 2011. Decanter's reviewer noted that 30% of the crop was declassified.
Asked about his greatest challenge, Olivier Berrouet told the Wine Advocate: 'Our biggest challenge is to avoid all the temptations you can have in the vineyard and in the cellar. You can go too far. With our job, if you go too far, you can't go back. Little steps are best.' The wine was aged in 50% new oak and bottled in mid-July 2017.
Perfect scores, and one dissent
The 2015 drew 100 points from Lisa Perrotti-Brown in the Wine Advocate in February 2018, who wrote that Berrouet and his team 'knocked it out of the park,' from James Suckling, who called it 'a wine that makes me dream and touches my soul,' and from Wine Enthusiast. Neal Martin had scored it 98-100 from barrel in April 2016 and placed it alongside the Petrus 1950, 1964, 1989 and 1998. Falstaff and Jeb Dunnuck gave it 99, Vinous 97+, and Wine Spectator 96.
Decanter's published review gives 97 points and calls it the best yet from Berrouet, though a retailer's score summary lists Decanter at 100; the reason for the difference is not stated. Tim Atkin gave 99 and said it 'may well get 100 points from me on release in bottle.'
Not everyone agreed. Jancis Robinson, who had given it 18.5 out of 20 from barrel, tasted it blind later and gave it 16 out of 20, found it 'very light in terms of impact' with a 'dusty, pinched finish,' and wondered after the reveal whether the bottle had been perfect.
Scarcity and price
Petrus averages about 30,000 bottles a year. The grapes are hand-picked over two to three days in a typical year, and the wine is aged 12 to 16 months in barrels, half of them new. A strict selection before blending rejects some parcels from the grand vin. In bad years there is no Petrus at all: no wine was released from 1956, 1965 or 1991.
A six-bottle lot of the 2015 was offered at auction in May 2025 with an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000, and another six-bottle lot sold in an online auction in the United States for $21,250 in September 2025, about $3,542 a bottle. In October 2026 a New York retailer offered three bottles for $23,955, or $7,985 a bottle.
The estate's fame reaches further than any cellar. In November 2019 a research company sent 12 bottles of Petrus 2000 to the International Space Station, where they spent 14 months before returning in January 2021. One of them, paired with an Earth-aged bottle of the same wine, was offered for private sale that May with an estimate of $1 million.
The numbers
- Vineyard
- About 11.4 ha
- Typical production
- About 30,000 bottles a year
- 2015 production
- About 2,500 cases, per Wine Spectator's review
- 2015 yield
- 40 hl/ha, per one critic; 30% of the crop declassified, per another
- Wine Advocate
- 100 (Lisa Perrotti-Brown, February 2018)
- James Suckling
- 100
- Vinous
- 97+
- Wine Spectator
- 96
- Jancis Robinson
- 16/20 (tasted blind)
Timeline
The Petrus name first appears in records; the Arnaud family owns the estate.
Cocks & Feret ranks Petrus behind Vieux Chateau Certan and alongside Trotanoy.
A gold medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle lifts Petrus to second-growth prices.
The Arnauds sell and a shareholding company is formed.
Around this year Madame Edmond Loubat begins buying shares.
Madame Loubat becomes sole owner; Jean-Pierre Moueix gains exclusive selling rights.
Two magnums of 1938 Petrus are given for Princess Elizabeth's wedding.
Frost kills two-thirds of the vineyard; the vines are cut back rather than replanted.
Madame Loubat dies.
Jean-Pierre Moueix buys more shares and Jean-Claude Berrouet joins Petrus.
5 ha bought from Chateau Gazin enlarge the vineyard to 11.4 ha.
Jean-Pierre Moueix dies; his son Jean-Francois becomes owner.
Olivier Berrouet's first vintage as winemaker.
Petrus becomes 100% Merlot from the end of this year.
The 2015 harvest ends after a picking window that began in mid-September.
Neal Martin scores the 2015 98-100 from barrel.
The 2015 is bottled.
The Wine Advocate scores the bottled 2015 100 points.
A 20% stake sold to Alejandro Santo Domingo is reported.
Six bottles of the 2015 sell in an online auction in the United States for $21,250.
The world in 2015
Gunmen kill 12 people at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Nepal.
NASA's New Horizons flies past Pluto, and Iran agrees to long-term limits on its nuclear program.
Cuba and the United States restore full diplomatic relations.
LIGO detects gravitational waves for the first time, as the Petrus harvest gets underway.
Coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris kill 130 people.
The Paris climate agreement is reached at the COP 21 summit.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $4,582 | Asking price, not a saleSingle bottle, in-bond trading platform price converted from GBP, including fee. Not a sale. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Petrus 2015 is number 12 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (9 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Petrus makes no second wine, and in 1956, 1965 and 1991 it released no wine at all.
- The Petrus label shows two large keys, the keys to Heaven held by Saint Peter.
- After the 1956 frost, Madame Loubat cut the surviving vines back instead of replanting, a technique untried in the region.
- Two magnums of Petrus 1938 were a wedding gift for Princess Elizabeth in 1947.
- Bottles of Petrus 2000 spent 14 months aboard the International Space Station, and one, sold together with an Earth-aged bottle, was offered with a $1 million estimate.
- Petrus 2015 drew several perfect scores, and a 16 out of 20 from Jancis Robinson tasting blind.
- The 2015 harvest at Petrus stretched across about two weeks, though shears were in the vineyard on only six days.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026