Winemaker Notes
The terroir of strong clay on limestone bedrock produces a powerful, fleshy wine with minerality, freshness and generosity.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very juicy and rounded young 2021 with berry, chocolate, cedar, balsamic, and redwood aromas and flavors. Medium to full body. Velvety tannins. Excellent finish. Extremely well done for the vintage. 79% merlot, 19% cabernet franc and 2% cabernet sauvignon. Best after 2028.
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Decanter
Bramble, coffee and caramel notes on the nose. Juicy and vibrant on the palate, this has a gentle coursing of strawberry and blackcurrant fruit with blackcurrant leaf giving a savoury, almost herbal edge, while the crushed stone and slate bring in minerality and salinity on the finish. Detailed and nuanced - I like the overall texture, there is grip and aromatic interest with density, chew and a gorgeous core of acidity that keeps things playful and joyous. Supremely alive and thriving on the palate with a persistence that doesn't let up. I love this and think it will be excellent after ageing.
Barrel Sample: 94 -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Château Pavie Macquin is a beautiful wine in the vintage, bringing rock-solid concentration and depth as well as its hallmark purity and elegance. Cassis, blueberries, scorched earth, and violet notes define the aromatics, and it’s medium-bodied, has terrific mid-palate depth, fine tannins, and outstanding length. I love its purity, and it has classic Pavie Macquin character. This beauty will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and evolve gracefully over the following 15+ years. It's clearly a success in this vintage. The blend is 79% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, representing 80% of the total production, with roughly 4,600 cases produced.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Pavie Macquin offers up aromas of cherries, blackberries and raspberries mingled with mint, spices and bay leaf. Medium to full-bodied, with a deep core of fruit framed by chalky tannins that assert themselves on the comparatively structured, mineral finish, it's a strong effort.
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Wine Spectator
Though leaning to the light, trim aspect of the vintage, this reveals juicy energy behind the red currant and damson plum fruit notes, while red tea, sanguine and singed cedar accents score the finish. Nicely done. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2036.
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.