Pavie 2017

The 2017 Pavie has a deep garnet-purple color. It prances out with flamboyant notions of stewed black and red cherries, mulberries, and raspberry coulis, plus underlying wafts of lilacs, forest floor, mossy tree bark, and wet pebbles, with an exotic touch of cardamom. Full-bodied, the palate is tightly wound and refreshing, delivering very fine-grained tannins and tons of bright, energetic fruit, finishing long and perfumed.

The 2017 Pavie is deep in colour, lucid in the glass. The bouquet demands a lot of coaxing before revealing scents of black cherries, blueberry, hints of cassis and crushed violet petals. It is powerful on the nose but I appreciate the contribution of the increased proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon, imparting cedar and pencil box tones. The palate is medium-bodied with saturated tannins. This is a well-built, an almost stocky Pavie with firm backbone, again, courtesy of the Cabernet, lightly spiced. A persistent finish fans out in superb fashion. It remains a "luxuriant" Pavie but one that is endowed more intellect than some recent vintages. Drink 2026-2060.

Tasted blind. Saturated ruby-purple in the glass. Deep and dark fruited. Brooding, smoky nose. Ripe and slightly balsamic. Very powerful and rich, a real mouthful. Full bodied and exotic. Perhaps a little modern? Some warming alcohol on the back end, but dense and long with tones of menthol on the finish.
Drink 2027 – 2040

Profound, crushed blueberry and blackberry aromas here. Mint and chalk undertones. Full-bodied with a center palate of balanced and ripe fruit with polished and caressing tannins. Excellent finish that goes on for minutes. All in finesse and length. A wine to contemplate and enjoy. Better after 2024.

This is a good Pavie, with a good amount of clear water between it and the second wine. There's no doubt that this is a big wine, high on extraction of black fruits, coffee and tar aromatics, but the overall feel is velvety and fresh, as it was in 2016. 80% new oak has been used this time, compared to 100% previously, but still for 24 months, and the estate has continued their practice of beginning harvest a little earlier than in the past (helped by the vintage of course), getting going on 20 September this year. It's a very good wine for the vintage, with impressive texture, and they are doing a very successful job of moving towards a more sculpted feel without sacrificing their signature. They had no blockage of maturity here, and no frost; the altitude and the limestone saw to that.
Drinking Window 2026 - 2040

Black-hearted with purple rim. Rich and dark and packed with fruit, and here the oak char adds a savoury quality and does not overwhelm the fruit. Excellent freshness – everything is embryonic but in a powerful but harmonious whole. A particular style but well done in that style. Chewy, compact and all so concentrated. Needs time to unfurl.
Drink 2030-2045

60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon. 30% of the fruit was relegated to the second label Les Aromes de Pavie (not to be confused with their Bordeaux brand L'Esprit de Pavie). The yield was 32 hl/ha and the alcohol is 14.61%. Ageing in 80% new oak. An inky purple colour in the glass, this is rich, extracted and powerful on the nose with espresso, damsons and black forest gateau. The palate is richly oaked with the same notes of coffee and creamy vanilla, and heady extraction of fruit makes for some puckering, mouthcoating tannins. It seems a touch more extractive than last year, but there is still a slight pulling back from the most extreme wines of the past from this Chateau. That allows for the fruit to be tamed by fresher acidity, and to shine through on a long, if ripe, finish. There are clear efforts to come back from the edge of modern winemaking, and the improvements are noticeable in the glass.

The nose has a mix of fresh fruit the start of the palate tight but there is mid sweetness ripe cherry some cassis. Rich fruit at the back tends to be overtaken by firm slight dry tannins. 2027-42

Pavie is a very rich and opulent wine in 2017 but while the fruit is aromatic and luxurious on the palate, the overall balance is not working perfectly because the oak is still too dominant for the slender fruit. The spice and red fruit freshness is really trying to be heard, but I fear that this will always be a wine that wears a suit of oak armour.