Big, bold, and seriously impressive — the 2019 Château Pavie is packed with dark fruit, spice, and power, but it’s also got finesse. A rich blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon, it shows off the estate’s amazing limestone terroir with great structure and a long, smooth finish. You could open it now and enjoy, but this one’s built to age like a champ.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 98
Published: Jan 25, 2022

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. 

Decanter | D 96
Published: Jan 5, 2022
Drink: 2026-2046

Such an expressive nose, especially after five minutes, dark black bramble fruits with raisins and plums on the nose alongside touches of tobacco and coffee too. Quite refined on the palate, less upfront plump fruit and chewiness, more knitted and focussed with a juicy core yet still powerful, underlying and driving. It's serious, muscular and strong, really a vein of direct fruit coated in wet stone minerality. I love the tension and acidity with the heady density of fruit and soft perfume around the edges. So much going on here. It's a bold, confident style, but overall feels well made and purposeful.
Closure: Cork
Alcohol: 14.85%
Body: Full
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 32% Cabernet Franc 18% Cabernet Sauvignon 50% Merlot

The Wine Advocate | RP 94+
Published: Apr 7, 2022
Drink: 2029-2065

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'sthick 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? 

Château Pavie occupies one of Saint-Émilion's finest terroirs, encompassing both the limestone slopes and part of the plateau that overlooks them; and since Gérard Perse acquired it in 1997, this hitherto much-neglected estate has been comprehensively revitalized, with extensive replanting at high density, the banishment of chemical herbicides and the restoration of decaying retaining walls and terraces. This south-facing site sits on limestone soils that remain hydrated even in dry conditions due to underlying groundwater; so, it naturally delivers elevated levels of ripeness combined with low pHs. And since lower pH enhances the perception of tannin, even the most gently vinified of wines from a vineyard like this would naturally show some youthful structure. That Perse and his team have sought to push maturity to the maximum, crop at low yields in pursuit of quality and extract as much of their grape's intrinsic character into the wine that bears its name has thus tended to deliver deeply saturated, glass-staining wines exhibiting prodigious richness but also imposing levels of tannin that the wines, to my palate, haven't always been able to digest. As a newcomer in a rather conservative region, Perse naturally became a lightning rod, polarizing opinion, but over a decade later, the wines can be judged on their merits without parti pris. What is clear is that some of the early wines have evolved much better than their critics contended they would. But equally, in pushing the boundaries one sometimes exceeds them, and if today punch-downs have largely been eliminated and saignée (tank bleeds) much diminished, that's surely because the wines of yesteryear were sometimes chunkier and chewier than was strictly necessary. With a site of this quality, so well maintained, the fruit will speak for itself; and if power, intensity and longevity can thus be taken for granted at this address, it will be exciting to see if Pavie's subtle trend toward greater charm and sensuality continues in the years to come.

Jancisrobinson.com | JR 17.5
Published: Jan 31, 2023
Drink: 2028-2050

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.