| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
Gérard Perse has created a magnificent modern winery of marble, stainless steel and new oak barrels and, with very low yields, has been making wines of enormous concentration and power. Since 1998 Pavie has been rewarded with a string of high scores from the critics and has now attained Premier Cru Classe 'A' status. The 37 hectare vineyard contains vines of an average age of 48 years.
Deep garnet purple in color, the 2019 Pavie is a tad restrained to start, needing some patient swirling to coax out notes of fresh blueberries and boysenberries plus underlying scents of kirsch, violets, star anise, and fragrant earth. The full-bodied palate is taut with bright, youthful, muscular black fruits, supported by plush tannins and fantastic freshness, finishing on a persistent floral note. This was the first vintage for the move from 60% to 50% Merlot along with 30% Cabernet Franc and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.
The 2019 Château Pavie is another beauty that offers more density and sexiness than just about every other wine in the vintage, yet it is still an unnecessarily restrained expression of this terroir, which is the fad in Bordeaux these days. Based on 50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon that was brought up in 80% new French oak, this deep purple-hued effort has a great bouquet of ripe black cherries, darker currants, tobacco leaf, violets, and graphite, with a beautiful sense of minerality and salinity on the palate. Full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it has plenty of background oak, a deep, layered mid-palate, terrific tannins, and a great finish. It shows the more understated, elegant style of the vintage yet is still pure Pavie. Hide bottles for 5-7 years and enjoy over the following 30+.
While the 2019 Pavie does display a touch more restraint that the wines produced here a decade ago, it remains one of the most powerful, extracted wines in all of Bordeaux, exhibiting a glass-staining, opaque purple-black color and a rich bouquet of cherries, blackberries and berry fruit liqueur mingled with sweet spices, loamy soil, licorice and rose petals. Full-bodied, powerful and muscular, it's thick and textural, with a layered, multidimensional mid-palate laden with ripe fruit and rich, chewy tannins, concluding with a long, youthfully grippy finish. The evolution of the early Pese-era wines at age 20 leads me to suspect that time will be kind to this 2019, but couldn't this great site—which naturally delivers elevated maturity combined with low pH—be rendered with more charm and sensuality? Drink Date 2029 - 2065
From: Bordeaux 2019: The Southwold Tasting (Feb 2023)
The 2019 Pavie has a very pure and perfumed bouquet with black cherries, kirsch and cassis fruit, controlled and focused. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, fresh with fine salinity, slightly granular towards the finish that feels cohesive and opulent. In the glass, it begins to show just a bit of alcohol on the finish, prompting me to knock a point off. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting.
- By Neal Martin on January 2023
Drink 2025-2055
Lots of blackberry and grilled meat with earth and spice. Some smoky undertones, too. Blackcurrants. Complex. Full-bodied with round, juicy tannins, yet they turn extremely fine and very linear and go on for minutes. Great length. A blend of 50% merlot, 32% cabernet franc and 18% cabernet sauvignon. Try after 2027, but already a joy to drink.
Layered, powerful, supple tannins, full of nuanced liquorice, cocoa bean, espresso, cigar box, grilled almonds, tar, bitter mandarin and black truffle that are packed in tightly against cassis fruits. This has been well handled over ageing, and feels contained, carefully holding the naturally powerful terroir of this site in place. 80% new oak. A great Pavie.
Tasted blind. Very dark crimson. Zesty and rich at the same time. Thick and sweet and almost exaggerated – but not! Great fruit and tannin. Just a little hot on the end. 14.5%
Drink 2028– 2050
50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon. First year there’s been a 50/50 Merlot/Cabernets split. Barrel sample.
Deep purple-black to the rim. Dark, ripe and complex with a leafy, blackcurrant note. Still assertively tannic and powerful but there’s a little more restraint and the tannins are polished and refined. Cool limestone terroir shows. Finishes on a muscly, chewy note. Plenty of wine but will need time. (JL) 14.7%
Drink 2030 – 2050
The 2019 Pavie is a blend of 50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it is a little subdued to start, soon opening out to deliver notions of black cherries, blueberry compote, and molten licorice, followed by hints of hoisin, tar, and cracked black pepper. The full-bodied palate delivers amazing tension and depth, featuring concentrated black fruits and loads of earthy sparks, finishing very long and velvety.
The 2019 Pavie is a blend of 50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, harvested from the 30th of September to the 11th of October. The yields this year were 35 hectoliters per hectare, and the alcohol came in at 14.73%, while the pH was 3.55 (remarkably low!). Very deep garnet-purple in color, the nose opens with a beguiling array of intertwined earth and black fruit scents: baked plums, black cherry preserves, tilled soil, black truffles, mossy tree bark and mulberries with nuances of allspice, clove oil, espresso and cedar chest. Full-bodied, densely packed and with a rock-solid structure, the constrained flavor layers are just waiting to explode; it's framed by firm, exquisitely ripe, rounded tannins and this vineyard's signature freshness, finishing with epic length and depth. Quaking with latent power and shimmering with a kaleidoscope of electric flavors, this could only be Pavie.
The 2019 Pavie was sent directly from the château to my home in mid-January. Given the freedom to decant, I decided to examine this Saint-Émilion, the only "A" left standing at time of writing, over a 24-hour period. It has a very controlled and focused nose, one that completely contradicts those that still claim that somehow Pavie is overripe or picked too late. This is delineated, clean and precise – dare I say, almost "classic" in style. Those blackberry and incense aromas that I remarked upon from the barrel sample remain in situ, and the floral component is enhanced, suggesting iris rather than violet. The palate is medium-bodied, yet full in the mouth, the tannins lacquering though not overwhelming. The oak is neatly integrated, building very nicely, and the copious black fruit is laced with graphite and tobacco courtesy of the Cabernets, which, lest we forget, constitute half the 2019 blend. I noticed how, after three hours, the tannins become more prominent, toughening up a little, the Cabernets edging out the Merlot and lending more of a Left Bank-like personality. Then, after 24 hours, the wine mellows and becomes plush, putting quite a distance between itself and the more ostentatious Pavie-Decesse. It shuts down a little on the finish, a timely reminder that this Pavie will need plenty of cellaring. But this is going to be an awesome Saint-Émilion.
2028-2060
The 2019 Pavie was picked from 30 September to 11 October at 29hl/ha. It is initially exubertant, feisty on the nose, a bit like the Pavie-Decesse. Allowing my sample an hour in the glass, it evolves more grace and composure with scents of blackberry, briary, incense and iris flowers. The oak beautifully integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, quite an edgy line of acidity, touches of graphite infusing the very pure black fruit on the satin-textured finish. This is undoubtedly a very impressive, sauve Pavie destined for long-term drinking. 2024 - 2060
This is superb with great length and quality tannins. It’s full-bodied with intense, polished tannins and great length. Tar and black fruit. Goes on for minutes. On and on. We will see which is better: 2019 or 2018.
Pavie has finally reached its replanting goal, and the 2019 Pavie is a blend of 50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple colored, it needs a little swirling before it tumbles effortlessly out of the glass with vibrant notes of cassis, fresh, ripe plums, crushed blackberries, and violets, plus suggestions of menthol, mossy tree bark, crushed rocks, and cumin seed. Full-bodied, it has a rock-solid frame of super-firm, grainy tannins and a racy backbone cutting through the densely layered black fruits, finishing with epic length and minerality.
Not tasted before release.
