Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from a vineyard just above Chateau Pavie, the 2017 Chateau Pavie Decesse is a brilliant blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc brought up all in new oak. It reveals a dense purple/plum color as well as stunning notes of creme de cassis, caramelized black cherries, graphite, crushed rocks, and candied violets. Deep, massively concentrated and powerful, yet with considerable elegance, fine tannins, and outstanding length, it’s a magical wine. Give it 4-5 years of bottle age and enjoy over the following 20-30 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There was no frost in the vineyard in 2017, due to its elevation. This is a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, and 100% of the grapes come from the limestone plateau. Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2017 Pavie Decesse bursts from the glass with bold notes of crushed black cherries, baked plums and boysenberries plus wafts of licorice, smoked meats and cracked black pepper with a hint of tree bark. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers wonderfully concentrated, crunchy black fruits and racy acidity to balance with firm, ripe, rounded tannins and a very long, very minerally finish.
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Wine Spectator
This is laden with cassis and warmed plum compote notes, infused liberally with violet and anise accents. Gains depth and richness with air, yet maintains a racy edge due to its mouthwatering acidity and perfectly embedded chalky spine on the finish. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2022 through 2040. Tasted twice, with consistent notes.
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James Suckling
This is a very long wine with lots of currant, mushroom, tobacco and bark character. It delivers a full-bodied palate impression with lots of ripe, silky tannins, yet they are always reserved and beautiful. Needs three or four years to open. Try after 2024.
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Decanter
Intense and powerful, again a reflection of house philosophy. Layered and sexy, it is always the wine that I like the most in the Perse range - and you can get stuck into this with a good carafing in two or three years time. It slides into liquorice and cassis, extremely mineral and precise with clear limestone salinity, almost iodine. A yield of 14hl/ha. Drinking Window 2025 - 2042.
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Wine Enthusiast
From the vineyard above Château Pavie, this wine has great structure as well as solid black fruits. It is a rich wine, its juiciness balancing the spicy, smoky, licorice edge. Drink this wine from 2023. Vignobles Perse.
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.