A floral, forward and expressive nose full of caramel, smoked meat, olives, roasted herbs, cherry jam and cedar. Fruity and shiny on the palate, smooth and mouthwatering with bite and a metallic tang to the finish. Feels polished and highly charged still, just missing a touch more mid-palate depth, but the acidity and overall sleekness is exceptional. Given the rare chance to taste Petrus 1982, I was expecting brilliance and while the wine is delicous, it didn’t quite have the amplitude I was hoping for, but it will continue to give pleasure for a long time yet. Made by Christian Moueix and Jean-Claude Berrouet, who favoured elegance over extraction. (Drink between 2023-2038) (GH)

The 1982 Petrus is consistent with my previous notes. This has a lovely bouquet, perhaps a little purer than the bottle from February 2018 with just joyful black cherries, black truffle and cedar aromas, more red fruit developing with aeration. I appreciate the brightness. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannin, moderate in terms of complexity, more secondary notes towards the second half with sage, undergrowth and touches of leather. Whilst it does not exude the precision of the magnum encountered three or four years back (still the finest example of the 1982 Petrus that I have tasted) it is a wonderful Pomerol, if nowhere near the notion of perfection. Tasted at the Petrus dinner at Hide restaurant in London and then at Epure restaurant in Hong Kong. (Drink between 2020-2028) (NM)

Offering up aromas of sweet plums, fruitcake, warm spices, smoke, caramel and cedar, the 1982 Pétrus is medium to full-bodied, sweet and fleshy, built around powdery tannins that assert themselves on the somewhat firm finish. Served blind next to Trotanoy and Lafleur, Pétrus exhibits less sensuality than the former and less concentration and character than the latter, landing in third place. It remains a very attractive wine, but the great Pétrus of the decade of the 1980s is clearly not the 1982 but rather the monumental 1989. (WK)