Château Pavie 2015

Follows recent vintages with more Cabernet Franc (22%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (18%) in the blend. Fragrant dark fruit and spice notes. Powerful tannic frame, but the tannins are really refined. Opulent mid-palate, yet minerality and tension carry through to a firm, driving finish. Accomplished but needs time.

Gigantic nose of very ripe black fruit. Enveloping richness, but the abundant fine tannins make this feel remarkably elegant and decisively dry for the richness. Very long and firm finish that has extraordinary energy and vibrancy. Great aging potential. Drink or hold. Château Quintus vertical tasting. SP.

The 2015 Pavie has a very generous and outgoing bouquet that seems a bit riper than its peers. Touches of raisin and prune percolate through the red fruit. The palate is fleshy, plush and framed by saturated tannins. This is a luxurious, almost Napa-like Right Bank with a decadent, Merlot-driven finish. Tasted blind at the 2015 Bordeaux Ten-Year-On tasting.

Layers of fruit just keep on coming. The fruit is intense, sweet, fresh and powerful, with purity, length and complexity. The velvet texture coats your mouth. There are no hard edges from start to finish. The finish lasts at least 60 seconds! This is hedonistic and intellectual. But you need patience, as it will reward 15-20 years of cellaring.

Deep dark ruby, opaque core, purple reflections, delicate bright rim. Vivid roasted aromas, nuances of blackberry and black cherry, subtle spicy nuances, mineral touch. Taut, dark confit, very strong tannins, good fresh underlay, lemony salty finish, delicate vegetal aftertaste, still underdeveloped, it lacks any charm at this stage.

Pure perfection in a glass and unquestionably one of the great vintages for this cuvée, the 2015 Pavie is a blend of 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon that was brought up in 80% new French oak. Sharing some similarities with the 2009, this tour de force sports a saturated purple color as well as a sweet bouquet of crème de cassis, crushed rocks, white truffle, and licorice. Its oak is perfectly integrated and balanced by this wine’s massive fruit and structure. Full-bodied, deep, and superbly concentrated, with building tannins, it’s a massive wine by any measure, but what sets it apart is that it still glides across the palate and retains an incredible sense of purity, balance, and elegance. It’s drinking well today due to the vintage’s opulence, yet won’t hit prime time for another 5-10 years and I suspect will keep for upward of 50 years.

60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 18% Merlot. 36 hl/ha. Impenetrable color, violet with almost black highlights. Intense, fairly approachable bouquet, expansive with plenty of ripe red to black berry fruit, showing a certain nobility. On the palate, with a beautiful fruit expression, it shows charm for a few seconds, then the tannins attack from all sides. Pavie feels extremely upfront and coats both teeth and tongue. Here, only the potential can be assessed. There is no tasting pleasure to be found. It even hurts a little when you spit it into the modern special Pavie silver cup. But not because there’s no more wine in the mouth, rather because the tannins keep twisting around the palate afterwards. How far can you go, when you’re a Premier A, to stay at the top? Within a few hours I also had the other A-Premiers (Angélus, Cheval Blanc, Ausone) on my palate. That was truly top class and not this bulldozer-like Pavie over-vinification fuss. Pure potential rating with two eyes closed.

60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 18% Merlot. 36 hl/ha. Impenetrable colour, violet with almost black highlights. Intense, fairly approachable bouquet, expansive with plenty of ripe red to black berry fruit, showing a certain nobility. On the palate, beautifully expressed fruit; it shows a few seconds of charm, then the tannins attack from all sides, coming across as extremely upfront and coating teeth and tongue. Here, only the potential can be assessed. There is no tasting pleasure to be found. It even hurts a little when you spit it out. Not because there’s no wine left in the mouth, but because the tannins keep writhing around the palate afterwards. How far can you go, when you’re a Premier A, to stay at the top? Within a few hours I also had the other A-Premiers (Angélus, Cheval Blanc, Ausone) on the palate. That was truly top class and not this bulldozing over-vinification show. Pure potential rating with two eyes closed:

(60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36 hl/ha) Velvety, dense, sweet, complex, fresh bouquet; cassis, blackberries, black cherries, damson plums, fine dried-fruit notes, licorice, mocha, caramel. Concentrated, powerful, elegant palate with dense fruit, a velvety, tightly woven structure, concentrated, multifaceted aromatics, plenty of fine tannins, a very long, concentrated, aromatic finish with lots of lingering flavors. 19/20 2026 - 2050

Richly textured with luscious autumnal fruits, ripe and welcoming, and layered with fragrant spice. Love the depth of the black fruits, and this has grown into its excellence as the terroir begins to fully override the exuberance of its early years. Great stuff. 80% new oak.

Opaque garnet in color with a touch of purple, the 2015 Pavie needs a fair bit of swirling to unlock notes of baked plums, blackberry preserves, and spice cake followed by nuances of tree bark, charcoal, and tapenade with a touch of Indian spices. The full-on, full-bodied palate is atomic, exploding in the mouth with black fruit preserves and velvety tannins, kept in check by a racy backbone, finishing with epically long-lasting notes of exotic spices. It needs 5 years to come into its best, then drink over the next 25 years+.

Pavie 2015 shows an extremely tightly knit profile, yet complex and distinguished in its early aromatic notes. The wine will need to manage to loosen the impeccable strength of its structure and the compactness of its texture in order to reach harmony.

The colour is black and the aromas are entirely on black fruits. The wine is very dense, powerful, and tannic, surely the most concentrated in all of Bordeaux, with an impressive tannic structure. It will need a lot of time. 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon. 14.55% ABV with a pH of 3.72. Acidity 3.50 g/L.

Deep purple. Complex, subtle nose with notes of blueberries, licorice, candied fruit, spices, and a hint of smoked bacon. On the palate, the wine is broad, creamy, and powerful. The tannins are perfectly integrated and reveal themselves very slowly. Owing to their breadth, they push the acidic structure into the background. However, the latter does not stand aside and plays its role well, notably by giving juiciness to the palate. In this context, it’s almost a feat! This Pavie is thus still a young man struggling to channel his energies, yet I remain convinced of its ability both to age for a very long time and to confirm its place among the great Pavie wines by picking up one or two additional points over time…

This starts off richly, featuring beautifully rendered layers of fig, boysenberry and plum pâte de fruit flavors coursing through. The structure is refined and integrated, with a light chalky edge adding tension and vivacity while being absorbed by the fruit. The finish has pyrotechnics of anise, black tea and singed mesquite that are formidably long. Best from 2025 through 2045. 5,833 cases made.

2015 enabled the Perse family to craft highly sculptural wines with great ageing potential, which should definitely be cellared for the most ambitious cuvées (Pavie, 19/20; Pavie Decesse, 18/20; Bellevue Mondotte, 17/20; Monbousquet, 17.5/20). For those less patient, focus first on the fleshy, gourmand roundness of the impeccable Esprit de Pavie, a generous and charming expression of an accessible Bordeaux.

Although this wine is ripe, it is the fruit that sings. Firm and rich, the tannins support the wonderful fruitiness. Its perfumed Cabernets give the wine great presence as well as freshness. It is ready for long aging. Drink from 2027.