Chateau Pavie 2015

This is really something. Sort of speechless when I taste it. It shows evocative aromas of wet earth, oyster shell, dust, tile, blackberries and blueberries. Full body, ultra-fine tannins and a length and intensity that is so, so fine. A wine in perfect harmony. Complete. Hard not not to drink. Energetic and balanced. Better to wait for 10 years. Try in 2028.

The 2015 Pavie is a blend of 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon that is matured in 80% new oak and 20% one-year-old barrels. It has a really quite glorious bouquet that is sensual and very well defined and pure. In my opinion, just dialing down the new oak even by 15% is allowing more personality and more terroir-expression to filter through. The palate is medium-bodied with supple, ripe, lace-like tannins and a fine bead of acidity. It feels caressing and sensual in the mouth with superb mineralité and purity on the vivacious and sustained finish. This is unquestionably the best wine from Gérard Perse in 2015: a great Pavie with a very long life ahead, though I would cellar it for at least a decade to witness it in full flight. 95-98.

The 2015 Château Pavie is going to be a candidate for the wine of the vintage, both from the right and left banks, it’s that good. Made from 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, this truly great wine sports an inky purple color and to-die-for notes of crème de cassis, toasted bread, liquid flowers, and a building, gravely, liquid rock-like minerality. Possessing full-bodied richness, ultra-fine tannin, and integrated acidity, with perfect ripeness and balance, it will need at least 4-5 years of bottle age to be drinkable but is going to keep for decades. I wrote 'Wow' more than once in my notes. 98-100 Points.