Pavie 2012

Pavie is a wine that it really isn't worth approaching before the 10 year window - not just because under its then-regime, everything was turned up to the max, but because this is a powerful terroir that delivers muscular wines. It's beginning to relax, if displaying waves of gunsmoke and rubber reduction aromatics at first. Once it unwinds in the glass, you get grilled sandalwood and cloves alongside liqourice bud, black cherry, raspberry and cassis fruits. The limestone influence with its mouthwatering salinity and saffron is kicking in and this has character and tension. First vintage as a Premier Grand Cru Classé B, following the promotion of that year (and as things stand the only one left). 80% new oak, 28hl/h yield.

Deepest inky purple crimson. Black core. Finely aromatic black fruit. But so concentrated that the aroma is suppressed for now. Tightly packed, dry, fine grained, no hardness even though there's obviously plenty of extraction. Deep, dark and impressive and takes no prisoners. Put it away for some time. Plenty of chewy tannins but they envelop good fruit. Not my style but there is a harmony within that power. There is a minerality but it is expressed more as graphite because of the intensity of the wine and fruit and in the nicely dry tannin texture. Fresh enough but the freshness too is hard to find in the concentration. (JH)

The nose is closed and the fruits that show have a herbal character. There is a sweeter feel on the mid palate cassis and red cherry but under the fruit the tannins are very firm holding back the fruit and tending to dry the finish. 2017-26

The full-bodied, opaque purple-hued 2012 exhibits a beautiful nose of mulberries, black cherries, cedar wood, high quality toasty oak, lead pencil shavings, crushed chalk and floral notes. This complex, authoritative, full-throttle Pavie possesses much more accessibility and precociousness than most vintages. It is another brilliant effort from proprietors Chantal and Gerard Perse. It should be drinkable in 8-10 years and last for three decades. From 47-year-old vines, Pavie, one of the largest estates in St.-Emilion (92 acres), has once again hit pay dirt with their 2012 Pavie. Yields were 28 hectoliters per hectare (which is slightly above the 26 hectoliters per hectare in 2010), and the harvest was exceptionally late. The tannins may be the sweetest of any young Pavie I have tasted since the 2001 (which the 2012 vaguely resembles).

Lots of beautiful aromas of roses, dark fruits and dark chocolate. Full and chewy with beautiful firm tannins and that add to the long finish. Very intense. Very fine tannins. Very, very long. 70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon.