| Region | |
|---|---|
| Subregion | France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > St Emilion |
| Colour | Red |
| Type | Still |
Just beginning to come around and strut its enormous potential, this wine at age 15 has been evolving like a glacier. The wine has an inky, opaque, plum/purple color and a stunningly rich nose of mulberries, bramble berries, blackberries, licorice and incense as well as touches of toast and graphite. Fabulously concentrated and full-bodied, with a multidimensional mouthfeel, this profound Pavie is in mid-adolescence. It should evolve and continue to drink well for at least another 30-40 years. This is clearly the first compelling effort made by the Perse family.
Pavie is widely acclaimed as one of Bordeaux’s greatest terroirs, of largely limestone and clay soils. Brilliantly situated with a sunny, southern exposure and exceptional drainage, Pavie potentially rivals nearby Ausone, the oldest and possibly the most famous estate in Bordeaux. Pavie’s other nearby neighbors include, Pavie-Macquin and Troplong-Mondot to the north, Larcis-Ducasse to the southeast and La Gaffelière and Saint-Georges Côte Pavie to the west.
The 2000 Pavie was tasted on two occasions. The first was from bottle at the château, where I felt it was quite sauvage and displayed more brettanomyces than I remembered. It was a peculiar showing. Then I tasted a magnum back in the UK, and this chimed more with previous bottles. Blackberry and crème de cassis feature on the nose, which is precocious and modern in style, though the new oak that once dominated this Saint-Émilion is now subsumed. The palate is full-bodied and dense, yet it does possess an alluring, silky texture. A sweet, precocious finish lingers extremely long in the mouth. 2023 - 2045
Medium garnet-brick in color, the 2000 Pavie needs a little swirl to coax out fragrant notes of dried roses, cinnamon stick, red loam, and fallen leaves leading to a core of kirsch, plum preserves, and blueberry compote plus a hint of cardamom. The medium to full-bodied palate is an exercise in grace and suppleness, featuring exquisitely ripe, silky tannins and seamless freshness to frame the achingly perfumed fruit, finishing so, so long and so, so fragrant. This was the first vintage using the "Eleanor" bottle shape that Pavie is well-known for today.
I tasted this wine twice during the 2000 horizontals, then I actually popped the cork and drank a half-bottle of it. This wine remains, for me, one of the compelling success stories for proprietor Gerard Perse. An extraordinary effort made from a blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon from the limestone soils that dominate this very distinctive terroir, the 2000 Pavie has moved out of the closed, dormant, broodingly backward stage into an adolescent period where one can see its extraordinary vibrancy, and great complexity as well as potential. It boasts an unctuous display of rich, cedar box-infused cassis fruit and liquid minerality. The tannins have sweetened, yet the wine has thirty years of longevity and potential evolution. A beautiful wine of great mass as well as elegance, it is good to see the extraordinary efforts that Gerard Perse and his team have made confirmed in this prodigious wine. A legend now ... a legend for the future. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2060.
Give Gerard Perse credit. People thought his numerous assurances that 2000 was the greatest Pavie ever produced were premature as well as arrogant. However, after tasting this extraordinary blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon (made from low yields of 28-30 hectoliters per hectare) six separate times in 2003, it is unquestionably one of the most monumental wines Bordeaux has ever produced. Bottled in March, 2003, about nine months later than other 2000s, the color is an opaque purple, and the bouquet offers up notes of liquid minerals, blackberries, cherries, and cassis intermixed with spice box, cedar, and white flowers. On the palate, it exhibits a massive display of richness and extract, yet with pinpoint delineation and vibrancy as well as a 60+ second finish, this is the kind of phenomenal wine that Perse's critics were afraid he might produce - a no-compromise, immortal wonder that represents the essence of one of Bordeaux's greatest terroirs. Life is too short not to own and consume the 2000 Pavie. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2050.
With no shortage of confidence, Gerard Perse feels the 2000 is the greatest Pavie ever produced. Premature you say? Don't discount the proprietor's rhetoric. A blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, it is a backward, super-concentrated effort displaying an inky purple color, and a thrilling bouquet of minerals, black fruits, vitamins, and toast. It possesses a wealth of fruit, glycerin, and extract as well as high levels of tannin, and a finish that lasts nearly a minute. It will undoubtedly close down after bottling, and not be close to prime time drinking until 2010 or later. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2050.
Structured, with an opaque ruby/purple color, Pavie's 2000 exhibits aromas of liquid minerals, black cherry liqueur, cassis, and flowers. The wine is full-bodied yet extraordinarily precise, with uncanny elegance, fabulous purity, and astonishing length. Although elevated, the tannin is sweet as well as nicely integrated. However, this 2000 will require considerable patience. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2040.
The 2000 Pavie has actually been tasted twice within several days, the first bottle shows a little more warmth than the second. Like other vintages it is matured in 200% new wood. It is slightly deeper in colour than the 1998. It has a showstopper of a nose: blackberry, crème de cassis and violets, a little more mineralité than the 1998. The palate is full-bodied with a disarming silkiness, layers of cassis and black cherry-driven fruit, very fine tannin and stunning purity. Does it express the terroir as well as say the 2015 Pavie? That is a question for debate, although you cannot argue that this is a great Pavie. Tasted at Berry Brothers & Rudd Pavie dinner. 2020 - 2050
