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  • Country ranking ?

    117
  • Producer ranking ?

    2
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    from 2025
  • Food Pairing

    Beef

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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98-100 JEB DUNNUCK: "Possibly the wine of the vintage, the 2018 Château Pavie is comprised of 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon that comes from this magical hillside terroir just outside of Saint-Émilion. Thrilling notes of crème de cassis, crushed rocks, graphite, smoked herbs, and an almost Hermitage-like minerality all emerge from this young, primordial, viscerally thrilling wine that´s got perfection written all over it. Massively textured, full-bodied, ultra-fine and flawlessly balanced, it shows how to pair elegance with richness and power. Bravo! It’s going to need 7-8 years of bottle age and keep for 3-4 decades."

98-99 JAMES SUCKLING: "This is a very pretty and structured Pavie with a beautiful elegance and depth. Full body and a great core of elegant fruit, surrounded by very fine tannins. Very polished. Extremely long. Finesse with power. "

97-100 THE WINEADVOCATE: "The 2018 Pavie is composed of 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, harvested October 1-10 with yields of 38 hectoliters per hectare. The wine has a 3.58 pH and 14.48% alcohol. Very deep purple-black in color, the nose starts off quiet and stern, swiftly growing exponentially in the glass to reveal powerful plum preserves, fruitcake, coffee beans, smoked meats and black olives scents with emerging nuances of roses, hoisin, molten chocolate and licorice plus a waft of candied violets. WOW—the palate explodes with waves of black fruit preserves, exotic spices and savory chocolate, framed by very firm, super ripe, velvety tannins and an electric backbone of freshness, finishing with epic length and energy. Amazing, singular wine—it could only be Pavie."

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The Story

Saint Emilion Grand Cru er 1 grand Cru Classé /Château Pavie has diverse terroirs:
- Terroir typical of the Saint Emilion limestone plateau composed of claylimestone soil on an asteriated limestone subsoil. Located at an altitude of approximately 85 metres above the Dordogne River
- Terroir called “milieu de côte” (middle of the slope) located approximately 55 metres above the Dordogne and composed of very fine brown limestone. Many plots have been re-planted. The vines are trained high to increase the leaf canopy. Pruned to six spurs for old vines and 2 for young ones, green harvesting, leaf thinning, as well as picking and sorting by hand.

Many plots have been re-planted. The vines are trained high to increase the leaf canopy. Pruned to six spurs for old vines and two for young ones, green harvesting leaf thinning, as well picking and sorting by hand.

FERMENTATION :
The way Château Pavie is fermented depends on the vintage. It is kept on the skins for 3 weeks in twenty temperature-controlled wooden vats. Malolactic fermentation in barrel and the wine is aged in new oak for 18-24 months.



37 hectares
60% merlot, 30% cabernet franc,
10% cabernet sauvignon
43 years
8000 cases

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Vintage 2018

Report and recommendations for the 2018 Bordeaux vintage

by Andrew Caillard MW

2018 is an exceptional year. Bordeaux whites and Sauternes are very good, but from an Australian perspective, the excitement is all in the red wines. All sub-regions produced examples of very good wines, but some performed better than others. Generally, the largest estates have made exemplary wines illustrating that the human factor and wealth can have a major impact on the terroir! Over the past few weeks I have tasted around 350-400 wines, sometimes in large format forums like UCG tastings or at various châteaux. These days it is difficult to taste wines blind, but color density, aromatic freshness, tannin density and overall balance are obvious indicators. In some cases, I tasted wines a few times, which allowed me to cross references.

 

The weather until a few days ago was clear with bright sunshine, warm days and a cool breeze. Temperatures have dropped now with more cloud cover and intermittent rain. Driving from Sauternes to St Emilion we passed through some light hail but not enough to cause too many problems. In two weeks, we saw dormant vines and trees come to life. The growing season starts a little early and, of course, people worry about the chance of frost. After the devastating frost episodes of 2017 and the challenges created by hail and mildew in 2018, there is a feeling that climate change could well have an unpredictable impact on future Bordeaux vintages.

 

We have tasted a good amount of primeur wines now. As usual the vintage will be exaggerated. The growing season was almost calamitous, but long hours of hot sunshine over the summer cleaned everything up and allowed the grapes to ripen very, very well. The colors, flavors, density and acidities are truly impressive and as a result the vintage is generally quite exceptional. It's difficult to truly understand overall crop losses, as growers are naturally quite cagey. But they vary from almost nothing to less than a third. At Ch Climens in Sauternes Barsac, I estimate that the harvest is around 20% of the average. When we know that this area lost its entire harvest in 2017 due to frost, the shock must be keenly felt. Mother Nature has been particularly cruel lately. The growing season story will inevitably create a negative impression, but few people will remember the details in years to come. They will only remember the wine. For some people with long memories, they believe the vintage is like 1947 or 1961. If so, it's not just an exceptional vintage, it's something beyond the norm. An immortal year. The concentration, weight and vitality of the wines are impressive. Despite the incredible density of tannins, saturated colors and flavors, the wines are actually quite easy to taste, indicating remarkable balance and life.

 

In my opinion, the strongest sub-regions are Pauillac and St Julien – both of which have produced wines of great consistency and classicism. They are powerfully expressive with pronounced ripe tannins and pure fruit flavors. The combination of better microclimatic conditions, wealth and physical resources contributed to the result. Ch Pontet Canet is an exception because of its approach to biodynamic viticulture. It suffered terribly from downy mildew and only produced a third of the harvest. The wine is distinctly different from wines like Ch Latour or Ch Pichon Lalande, but its overall buoyancy and fruit richness are convincing. It also represents something worthwhile and important.

 

I still think Pauilac is the benchmark for Bordeaux. Typically, the wines are extremely expressive with aromas of pure cedar and fine grainy tannins. This year, the wines are particularly dense and inky with abundant graphite tannins. They are not at all tense or soft and so when the tannins settle in, the wines will be exceptional.

There are many exceptional wines from Pauillac, including Ch Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch Pichon Longueville Baron, Ch Lynch Bages, Ch Batailley, Ch d’Armailhac and Ch Grand Puy Lacoste. The premier crus Ch Latour, Ch Mouton Rothschild and Ch Lafite Rothschild are very impressive. Their second wines Les Forts de Latour, Petit Mouton and Carruades are also of very high quality.

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

Possibly the wine of the vintage, the 2018 Château Pavie is comprised of 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon that comes from this magical hillside terroir just outside of Saint-Émilion. Thrilling notes of crème de cassis, crushed rocks, graphite, smoked herbs, and an almost Hermitage-like minerality all emerge from this young, primordial, viscerally thrilling wine that's got perfection written all over it. Massively textured, full-bodied, ultra-fine and flawlessly balanced, it shows how to pair elegance with richness and power. Bravo! It’s going to need 7-8 years of bottle age and keep for 3-4 decades. Barrel Sample: 98-100

  • 100p

Swathes of black fruits underline the generous structure and intensity. At first taste, the tannins are soft but that turns out to be an illusion. The tannins are just richly cushioned within the beautiful fruit.

  • 98p

Ruby. Blueberries, anise, spices, cassis, blackberries, vanilla nose, somewhat scented behind it all. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, anise, blueberries, spices, liquorice, dark fruity, layered and long. This is a fresher better balanced Pavie than in quite some time, still quite hard on the wood. If this wine handles the quite raw wood it might reach higher than this score. 95-97

  • 97p

Deep colour. Fresh mulberry plum, toasty roasted chestnut aromas with star anise notes. Dense supple fruit with intense dark plum, paneforte mocha flavours, fine plentiful dense vigour chalky textures. Roasted nut lead pencil notes. Finishes gravelly firm, long and chocolaty. Powerfully expressive wine with extraordinary energy and density.

  • 98p

Dark purple colour with violet hue and almost black core. Opulent yet elegant nose with multi-layered fruit, well balanced spiciness, hints of vanilla and cloves, flowery touch in the background. On the palate rich and full-bodied with great freshness and elegance, excellent complexity, depth and length. A great Pavie. 

  • 98p
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Information

Origin

St. Emilion, Bordeaux

Inside Information

96-99 WINESPECTATOR: "Gorgeous from start to finish, offering lush layers of raspberry, cassis and plum sauce flavors entwined with licorice, apple wood and rooibos tea notes. There´s a serious grip through the finish but this is focused and pure in feel. The encore of fruit detail at the very end is impressive.—J.M."
 

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