Continuing on from my previous post the second wine of the evening was onto the big boy of Chateau Pavie. Located to the southeast of the town, running down the côtes, most of the 37 hectares of vines are 40 years of age, trained high to improve exposure to the fruit and are situated on clay and limestone soils. The grapes are hand harvested and once pressed spend 24 months in 100% new oak. Throughout this duration the wine undergoes batonnage and finally is bottled without fining or filtration, of which there are about 8000 cases produced per year.
Chateau Pavie – Saint-Emillion Grand Cru – 2001
70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon
Seriously inky dark on the appearance this wine looks broad and bold. A smoky nose lures you in further to reveal ripe plum and dark cheery with a sprinkle of fine tobacco. Intriguing and interesting but worried by the youthful presence of its 100% new oak. The first thing that hits your pallet is a sweetness sensation, but not as in sugar, its ripe dark cherry plum fruit and liquorish vanilla flavor with a long round finish yielding a firm complex tannin structure balanced with enough acidity to show this beauty will age easily decades to come. This wine was decanted for around 4 hours, perhaps could have benefited from more as later in the evening when revisiting the wine the aroma opened up further to reveal clearer dark fruit and powdered dark chocolate on the finish. A fantastic Grand Bordeaux experience drinking well now but will also benefit from further ageing. At an average price today of £126 per bottle this is an expensive bottle of wine to drink without an occasion but a thoroughly pleasant and educational wine experience enough for it to be the occasion! 94/100
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