Château Pavie 2019

Dreamy right from the start, with a seductive mouthfeel to its mix of raspberry puree, cassis and creamed plum flavors infused with rooibos tea, black licorice and alder accents. Long and extremely fine-grained through the finish, with subtle floral lift and a lingering hint of chalky minerality. Gorgeous. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2025 through 2040. 8,000 cases made.

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 focused 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.

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.

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 toward 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.

With a beautiful, dark, rich color, the wine opens its perfume to reveal a bouquet of flowers, crushed stones, black cherry, blackberry, espresso and cigar box aromas. The wine is intensely concentrated, opulent, fresh and most importantly, balanced. Everything is working together here. Rich and mouth-coating, the fruits display purity and touches of salty minerality. The finish builds and expands in all the right directions. 2019 is the first vintage where the Merlot does not dominate the blend. The wine was made using 50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon. Like all the great vintages of Pavie, the wine needs time to age and evolve. Drink from 2035-2060.

Deep dark ruby, opaque core, purple reflections, delicate bright rim. Layered with fine savoury notes, sweet dark berry fruit, ripe cherries, a hint of nougat and figs, seductive bouquet. Juicy, powerful, dark forest berries, complex, pronounced in fruit and carried by ripe tannins, chocolatey texture on the very long finish, showed no rough edges, has enormous future potential, no trace of over-extraction, mineral and fresh, plays the quality of its outstanding terroir to the fullest. Chapeau!

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+.

Concentrated, profound, dark, complex bouquet: black cherries, candied black berries, dark chocolate, graphite, licorice, and a hint of cold smoke. Powerful, tightly knit, aromatic palate with a concentrated, muscular structure, plenty of fine tannins, dense fruit, diverse dark aromatics, and a very long, aromatic finish. 19/20 2028 - 2050

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.

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.

Supple, caressing tannins with a beautifully rounded palate for immediate enjoyment.

In 2019, the wine sets a violet-scented nose against graphite notes from a soil enhanced by clear springs. The aromatic impressions of limestone manage to emerge from still considerable oak. Despite the warmth of the vintage, the wine skirts on tension in a liberated finish. Pavie’s style is evolving towards greater elegance and suppleness.

With 45% of Cabernets now in the blend, the style of Pavie has evolved. With this latest release, it has gained structure and aroma. The wine has rich tannins with concentration and powerful spice and black fruits. Drink this intense wine from 2027.