Chateau Pavie 2003

JAMES SUCKLING: "This controversial wine is fresh and bright still, unlike many of the overrated 2003s. Full-bodied, tight and polished with beautiful intensity and verve. Blackberry and sweet tobacco. Wet earth. Subtle and complex. Straight and direct. Drink or hold."

WEINWISSER: "Tiefes, dichtes Granat mit lila Schimmer und rubinem Rand. Kokos-Bounty-Pralinenbouquet, üppig, dicht und mit einer berauschenden Merlot-Süsse, trotz der warmen Frucht im Nasenbild mit wunderschöner Frische. Im Gaumen süss, recht weich, massive, im Untergrund spürbare Tannine, mit einem weichen Fettmantel umhüllt, im Nachklang pflaumig, getrocknete Feigen, mit einem Portschimmer endend. Ein «dicker Spass»."

WINE SPECTATOR: "This is a stunner, with the warmth of the vintage marrying ideally with the relative coolness of the terroir to deliver a wide range of vivid plum, boysenberry, raspberry and cherry paste flavors that have energy and drive, carried by a long graphite note and backed by a roasted apple wood accent that has been fully absorbed. Powerfully ripe, but not heady, with a sense of poise through the finish. A jaw-dropper.--Non-blind Pavie vertical (March 2017). Best from 2020 through 2040. 7,500 cases made."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Certainly this was a wine born under considerable controversy, receiving accolades and kudos from me and several of my American colleagues, but generally excoriated by the British press. The French wine critics were very positive. This wine has calmed down considerably as it was a blockbuster, somewhat of a Bordeaux fruit bomb in its youth, and now has toned itself down to a serious candidate for one of the wines of this rather bizarre, but interesting, vintage. 2003 offered everything, from pathetically dilute and thin wines to some massive blockbusters. That was true especially in the Northern Médoc and from the limestone hillsides of St.-Emilion (where Pavie is situated). The color is a dark garnet, with a touch of amber beginning to appear on the edge. The wine has a stunning nose of roasted herbs, grilled meats, charcoal, blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, with some oak still present. Dense, full-bodied and very succulent and lush, this wine seems to be in late adolescence, ready to enter a relatively mature stage. There is always a suspicion because of the extreme heat in July and August that these wines will crack up very quickly, and certainly that will always be a worry, but this one looks set for at least another 10-15 years of drinkability."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Lush, ripe, rich, full-bodied, ripe, even very ripe, but not over-ripe, the wine is plummy and loaded with smoke, espresso, licorice, stone and dark, ripe plums. This is a good time to be drinking this."