PV Tasting Notes
Long regarded as the wine for true connoisseurs of Bordeaux, the 2007 has turned out to be one of the few stars of the vintage, dark ruby coloured with as always, plenty of muscle and richness, the bouquet is rather exotic, plums, sweet spice and toasty oak, the tannins are concealed by the weight of fruit, a rather brawny wine, especially for this vintage, with an underlying suppleness that suggests it will drink well for more than a decade. Saint Pierre is one of the few wines worth seeking out from any and every vintage.
Independent Review91 points Robert Parker The Wine Advocate April 2010
A fabulous wine for the vintage, this well-endowed St.-Julien exhibits a dense purple color in addition to a sweet bouquet of charcoal, burning embers, blackberries, cassis, and a hint of graphite. Dense, full-bodied, and surprisingly concentrated with more body, texture, and length than most 2007s, the wine possesses a suppleness, velvety tannins, and low acidity. Drink it over the next 10-15 years.
Serve this with all manner of great foods like, Beef Tartare, Beef Carpaccio with spicy olive oil, Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, Seared beef fillet, Beef Tagliata, Poached fillet of beef on red peppers, Beef stroganoff, Blackened beef steak, Tournedos Rossini with Madera Sauce, Beef olives with kidney gravy, Slow roasted four rib, Seared beef fillet, Beef and shiitake mushroom stir fry, Salt beef and horseradish mash, Sweet tangy chilli beef, Braised shin of beef, Roast fillet of lamb, Navarin of lamb, Braised duck legs, roast duck breasts and red cabbage slaw, Duck with soy, diced plum and honey, Pan-roasted duck with cherry sauce, Pan-roasted partridge with creamed Brussels sprouts and chestnuts, Roast grouse with neeps, savoy sausage and whisky honey sauce, Honeyed crispy duck, Venison with blueberries, Roasted venison with chocolate vinaigrette.
The smallest Grand Cru Classe estate of the St Julien Commune, covering a mere 17 hectares and making on average 5,000 cases of wine each year. The history of Saint Pierre is known to date back more than 350 years and more, whilst is does not live up to the grandeur of the Leoville or Ducru properties, since it was purchased by Henri Martin in 1982 it has consistently produced some of the finest wines of Saint Julien, certainly the most concentrated and long lived and yet it is often overlooked by the general public, perhaps because it is so small.
Dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon 70% with 20% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and a smattering of Petit Verdot, this is aged in 40-50% new oak each year for around 18 months, there is no second wine, what is rejected from the Grand Vin is sold in bulk to local merchants.
The vines of this small estate rank amongst the oldest of the commune which will explain the deep colour, always made with considerable depth of fruit, deeply concentrated on the palate, full body and creamy texture, this remains totally underpriced compared to its more illustrious neighbours, I personally rank this as virtually always in best buys of Bordeaux wines today. Perhaps it’s the purest in me, but I like the old style wines and of the old style, this house is always ranked in the top 3 of Bordeaux, but I cannot think of another in the same price bracket.