Chateau Pavie 2008

WEINWISSER: "70 % Merlot, 20 % Cabernet Franc, 10 % Cabernet Sauvignon. 32 hl/ha. Nobles Kirschen- und Waldbeerenbouquet, feine Süsse, im Untergrund sehr konzentriert. Aromatischer Gaumen, sattes, aber recht feines Extrakt, viel verschwenderische Frucht, im Finale helle Schokonoten, geröstete Nüsse und Kokos, nun sehr klassisch und nicht so avantgardistisch in seiner Ausstrahlung. Ein beeindruckender Wein mit viel Klasse!"

JEB DUNNUCK: „Possibly the wine of the vintage, the 2008 Pavie has the elegance of the Pavie Decesse and the power of the Mondotte. It’s a brilliant, sexy beauty loaded with notions of crème de cassis, blackberries, spice box, and licorice, with a classic Saint-Emilion-like liquid rock minerality. This all carries to a full-bodied Saint-Emilion that offers loads of fruit and texture, yet remains fabulous polished, elegant, and balanced. It’s a wine that builds incrementally on the palate, with beautiful depth of fruit and ripe tannins. Bravo to Gerard Perse for another tour de force in Bordeaux! Drink it any time over the coming 30 years or more. The blend of the 2008 is 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon."

JAMES SUCKLING: "This is starting to be perfect to drink now with chocolate, grilled-meat, plum and wet-earth character. Full-bodied, tight and focused. The acidity has diminished and this shows balance. Drink or hold."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Luscious and sexy, rich and powerful, long and fresh, this has a lot going on. Full bodied and intense, the wine is still young, but it is impossible not to get all the sweetness and purity in the fruits, along with its minerality. But you need to wait another decade."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "A slightly more compact style of Pavie in this vintage, but still full-bodied, the 2008 has a youthful, dense purple color and is seriously endowed with concentrated, rich fruit, licorice, graphite, forest floor, and loads of dark plum and black and red currant fruit. This wine still has some tannins to resolve, and should be cellared for another 4-5 years. Drink over the following two decades."

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Inky with barely a rim. Dark and firm, dry but with more freshness and the tannins a little more melted than in previous vintages. Gerard Perse described as ´more feminine´ than in the last few years, though I think he must like his women to have worked out! Lovely dark fruit. Roasted but not cooked. Dark and intense but much more. Savoury and concentrated but not the bitterness of some previous vintages. (JH) "

WINE ENTHUSIAST: „Dry tannins dominate this wine. Pavie's style has become less exuberant, more restrained, which allows the terroir to show through in its tannins and concentration. This is for long-term aging."

DECANTER: „Pavie is all about digging in for the long haul, and at 10 years old it starts to make sense. Those tannins are still chewy but not ferocious, the fruit savoury and concentrated. It has far more power than a typical limestone St-Émilion for at least four of its five beats, until that salted almond taste kicks in on the finish and the slate wall appears before you and you start to ascend, and then you think, hang on, in another 10 years this might just be reaching its peak!"

FALSTAFF: "Dunkles Rubingranat, tiefer Kern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Reifes Kirschkonfit, ein Hauch von Dörrobst"

WINE SPECTATOR: "A very solid effort in a difficult year, showing light bay and tobacco notes out front, quickly followed by a mix of raspberry and red and black currant fruit. Shows a lightly chewy edge, along with more tobacco and bittersweet cocoa elements, on the finish. This pulls about all it can out of a wet and cool year.--Non-blind Pavie vertical (March 2017). Best from 2018 through 2025. 6,665 cases made."