2025 Pavie (St-Emilion)

The 2025 Pavie is a total stunner. What a wine. Rich and dazzling in its intensity, the 2025 hits all the right notes. Inky dark red/purplish fruit, exotic spice, mocha, espresso and pomegranate literally stain the palate. The 2025 is going to require the better part of a decade to unwind, but it has a ton of potential and a very bright future. This is the first time Cabernet Franc is the dominant variety in the Grand Vin. The 2025 has plenty of the textural intensity readers have come to expect, but with less of the heavy extraction that marked the earlier years. 96-98 points

The 2025 Pavie was picked at just 21 hl/ha, the lowest ever, plus this is the first vintage with 60% Cabernet Franc from plantings in the 2000s. Matured in 65% new oak, the aromatics are far superior, more cohesive and purer than the Aromes cuvee. Still very plush and luxuriant, it has that purity, although it needs more delineation and terroir expression to come through. The palate is actually better than the nose and I appreciate the contribution that the Cabernet Franc makes in this wine, delivering fine structure and tension that I believe you would not have obtained if there were higher Merlot. Satisfying precision on the finish, this feels long in the mouth with cracked black pepper on the aftertaste. It is a different take on Pavie due to the different blend and if the aromatics can gain more complexity and nuance, then it could be an interesting proposition once in bottle. 92-95 points

Fragrant apple blossom, iris and violet flowers on the nose, brings its A-game from the first moments; coupling bright greengage plums, rose stems, and an intense grip of slate, with creamier blackberries, damson and creme patissiere. A ton of grip and length, this is in it for the long game, with pulses of oyster shell minerality to close things out. Brilliant. Here they did 8 weeks maceration, longer than most, but they felt that the wines needed a little longer to fill out through the mid palate, and for sure this is showing exceptional expansion and tension. Harvest September 15 to 29, first time in the Perse era that this has been entirely in September - and the final vintage under Gerard Perse. Pavie Decesse and Bellevue Mondot are now included in the main wine, bringing their limestone soils to the blend, and this is the highest amount of Cabernet to date. 21hl/ha yield, 3.58ph. 98 points