2024 Petit Verdot

Varietal Petit Verdot is rare.  Consider the listings of the wines produced from Bordeaux varieties on wine.com; Cabernet Sauvignon has 1.007 wines listed, Merlot has 131, Malbec 133, Cabernet Franc 128.  Petit Verdot has 6, yup that is no typo, a paltry half-dozen wines.  A quick and perfectly logical conclusion might be that Petit Verdot makes lousy wine, but that would be mistaken.  The French love the grape, they just can’t ripen it.  Of all the Bordeaux varieties Petit Verdot needs the most sunshine and heat.  My theory for the rarity of varietal Petit Verdot starts with the grower.  If a vineyard owner can grow and ripen Petit Verdot that grower has invariably also planted Cabernet Sauvignon.  And in my fifty years in this business, I have rarely tasted a Cabernet Sauvignon wine that wouldn’t have been improved with the addition of some Petit Verdot.  Therefore, since a vintner will invariably receive a premium for Cabernet Sauvignon it makes financial sense to add your Petit Verdot to the Cabernet Sauvignon, especially if it improves the quality of the wine. So unfortunately for those of us curious to try a varietal Petit Verdot the wine market, economics and wine quality have teamed up to suppress the offerings of wine produced from this outstanding grape.