Pavie Macquin 2018

The 2018 Pavie Macquin is a blend of 78% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, it slowly, sensuously unfurls to reveal a gorgeous perfume of Black Forest cake, Morello cherries, baked plums and violets, with nuances of licorice, Indian spices and fertile loam. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has achingly plush tannins and fantastic freshness framing the spicy black fruit and mineral layers, finishing long and so, so fragrant. Wow—just stunning! Drink: 2023 - 2052

One of my favorite wines, the 2018 Château Pavie Macquin is 78% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon that comes from a cooler terroir above Pavie. This Cuvée is always hard to judge in its youth, since it's often closed and reserved, but it builds beautifully with bottle age and offers an incredibly classic, complex, powerful, and elegant profile at maturity. Brought up in 70% new French oak, the 2018 reveals a dense purple hue as well as classic Saint-Emilion notes of cassis, black cherries, white truffle, chalky minerality, violets, and tobacco. Playing in the medium to full-bodied end of the spectrum, it has polished tannins, a wonderfully pure, elegant texture, and the balance and class to benefit from a decade of bottle age and keep for three decades or more.

Violets, blackcurrants, cloves, tobacco, orange zest and dark chocolate on the nose. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm, silky tannins and fresh acidity. Sleek and refined with elegant floral and spice notes on a long finish. Interesting hint of bitterness at the end. Try from 2025.

One of the standouts of the vintage, with blackcurrant fruits that are layered through with bitter black chocolate, espresso, smoked earth and gourmet bioche notes. There is a generosity here that makes it all the more impressive when it switches out of the exuberance into a tighter squeeze of oyster-shell minerality and a tight core of tannins that pulse with electricity. Once again you are reminded of the architecture of Pavie-Macquin, and the ability of clay-limestone to deliver both power and restraint, and to allow for space and breathing room between the tannins. Part of the oustanding vintages series within this vertical. 60% new oak, 47hl/ha yields.

Tasted blind. Interesting, well-balanced nose with intrigue and lift. Very fresh on the palate. Very much a non-pastiche wine! Very dry finish. But perhaps a style to be encouraged? Quite long. 14.5%
Drink 2027 – 2042

Inky coloured core. Pure, clean-cut cassis aroma. Lifted and lively on the nose. On the palate, all fruit, so much fruit that the other components are outshone. At the moment this makes it rather simple but it has depth and richness and the freshness to develop though it seems a little one-dimensional now. Relatively light on the mid palate and still balanced.
Drink 2023-2031

Very deep in colour. The nose is dense and sweet, with notes of blackcurrant fruit pastilles and liquorice. The palate follows, with palate-coating, chewy tannins and very toasty oak to the fore. The fruit is very concentrated and sweet, all damsons and jam. The finish is long and impressive, but this feels slightly too warm and over-extracted.

Packed with very expressive boysenberry and red currant paste aromas and flavors, this is dense and fleshy in feel, but has the energy to easily carry it off. Lots of chalky cut on the long finish. Rock-solid.

(78 Merlot, 20 Cabernet Franc, 2 Cabernet Sauvignon) | 45% new oak | 14.5 % alc This is a very rich and exotic wine and while the oak is high tone, the fruit manages to cope with it admirably. The perfume is excellent and the length is considerable and so this is one of the successes of the vintage.