Chateau Pavie 2019

Jeb Dunnuck: "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+."

Falstaff: "Tiefdunkles Rubingranat, opaker Kern, violette Reflexe, zarte Randaufhellung. Mit feinen Gewürzanklängen unterlegte süße dunkle Beerenfrucht, reife Kirschen, ein Hauch von Nougat und Feigen, verführerisches Bukett. Saftig, kraftvoll, dunkle Waldbeeren, komplex, extraktsüß und von reifen Tanninen getragen, schokoladige Textur im sehr langen Abgang, zeigte keine Ecken und Kanten, verfügt über enormes Zukunftspotenzial, keine Spur von Überextraktion, mineralisch und frisch, spielt die Qualität seines herausragenden Terroirs in vollen Zügen aus. Chapeau!"

Lisa Perrotti-Brown: "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."

James Suckling: "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 Wine Cellar Insider: "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."

Wine Spectator: "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."

Decanter: "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. Drinking Window 2026 - 2046"

Wine Enthusiast: "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. "

The Wine Advocate: "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's thick 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?"

Jancis Robinson: "Tasted blind. Very dark crimson. Zesty and rich at the same time. Thick and sweet and almost exaggerated – but not! Great fruit and tannin."