Chateau Pavie Decesse 2016
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert -
Dunnuck
Jeb -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
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Enthusiast
Wine
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Amazing, pure cherries, plums and flowers, as well as crushed stones. It jumps out of the glass. Full body, powerful tannins and a freshness and roundness to it. Lightly salty on the finish. Great structure with finesse. Try after 2024.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep purple-black colored, the 2016 Pavie Decesse bursts boldly out of the glass with confident blackcurrant preserves, baked blackberries, baked plums and sandalwood notes with touches of Indian spices, mocha and lilacs plus touches of cedar chest and pencil lead. Big, concentrated and voluptuously fruited in the mouth, it has a truly impressive structure of very firm, finely grained tannins and racy freshness lifting all that densely packed fruit to a very long, multilayered finish. Wow!
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Jeb Dunnuck
A wine that’s going to flirt with perfection in a few years, the 2016 Pavie Decesse is a normal blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc that was brought up in new barrels. It has an incredible mix of power and elegance that’s hard to describe, hitting the palate with a deep, full-bodied texture that carries, beautiful tannins, good acidity (the pH here is quite low), no hard edges, and thrilling length. Exotic, with notes of cassis, orange blossom, graphite, white truffle, and crushed rocks, it tastes like the essence of the limestone soils just outside of Saint Emilion. It’s going to need 7-8 years of bottle age and keep for decades. It’s another magical wine from the Perse team.
Rating: 98+ -
Wine Spectator
Warm and alluring in feel, with black tea, ganache and steeped plum and fig fruit flavors cruising through, picking up tobacco and dark earth notes on the rumbling finish. There's lots here, and this should gain a bit of nuance with cellaring. Best from 2022 through 2038.
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Decanter
A Perse wine from up on the limestone plateau where the vines never suffered from dry water stress in 2016, and so this has juice, tension and depth, plus a quite amazingly low 3.43pH. Gorgeous - the best that I remember. 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc.
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Wine Enthusiast
Predominantly Merlot, this wine comes from the plateau above Château Pavie. With rich black fruits and concentrated tannins, it has density as well as power. Hints of black coffee emphasize the rich tannins. The wine is beautifully lifted by final acidity. Drink from 2024.
Cellar Selection
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2022-
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James
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Château Pavie-Decesse was long hidden by the shadow of its older brother, Château Pavie. The two estates, Grand Cru Classé of Saint-Emilion, were separated in 1885 but keep a lot of similarities. Both own by Gérard Perse since 1997 and benefiting from an exceptional location on the limestone plateau of Saint-Emilion. With 3.5 hectares of prime land, it is planted with 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The vines are a respectable 43 years old on average and a draconian level of requirement is practiced in the vineyard to obtain the most beautiful and mature harvest each year. The grapes are picked and sorted by hand, then fermented in nine temperature-controlled wooden vats for three weeks to produce approximately 600 cases per year.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Marked by its historic fortified village—perhaps the prettiest in all of Bordeaux, the St-Émilion appellation, along with its neighboring village of Pomerol, are leaders in quality on the Right Bank of Bordeaux. These Merlot-dominant red wines (complemented by various amounts of Cabernet Franc and/or Cabernet Sauvignon) remain some of the most admired and collected wines of the world.
St-Émilion has the longest history in wine production in Bordeaux—longer than the Left Bank—dating back to an 8th century monk named Saint Émilion who became a hermit in one of the many limestone caves scattered throughout the area.
Today St-Émilion is made up of hundreds of independent farmers dedicated to the same thing: growing Merlot and Cabernet Franc (and tiny amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon). While always roughly the same blend, the wines of St-Émilion vary considerably depending on the soil upon which they are grown—and the soils do vary considerably throughout the region.
The chateaux with the highest classification (Premier Grand Cru Classés) are on gravel-rich soils or steep, clay-limestone hillsides. There are only four given the highest rank, called Premier Grand Cru Classés A (Chateau Cheval Blanc, Ausone, Angélus, Pavie) and 14 are Premier Grand Cru Classés B. Much of the rest of the vineyards in the appellation are on flatter land where the soils are a mix of gravel, sand and alluvial matter.
Great wines from St-Émilion will be deep in color, and might have characteristics of blackberry liqueur, black raspberry, licorice, chocolate, grilled meat, earth or truffles. They will be bold, layered and lush.