Winemaker Notes
Blend: 78% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 2% Cabernet Sauvignon
The Barrel Sample for this wine is above 14% ABV.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Really classy red, offering blueberries, minerals, salt, limestone and light fresh herbs. It’s full-bodied, but so refined. Fine layers of fruit and tannins. It’s like millefeuille. The 2018 is more exuberant, but I love the elegance and structure here. Subtle and complex. 78% merlot, 20% cabernet franc and 2% cabernet sauvignon.
Barrel Sample: 98-99 -
Decanter
Violet-edged floral attack, hitting you straight up with the full range of concentrated black fruits and spices. Such a great quality wine that stands out from the pack. Full of nuance, just when you think you are done it pushes another flavour into the room. The texture is controlled and precise, with slate edges that slow down its progress through the palate; just all round excellent terroir and winemaking. Tasted twice, a week apart, and its the depth to the palate that really sets it apart, and the mouth-scrapingly slow slate finish.
Barrel Sample: 97 -
Jeb Dunnuck
While this cooler terroir always yields a more austere wine that requires bottle age, the 2019 Château Pavie Macquin has a wonderful elegance and plushness to its fruit that gives surprisingly upfront appeal. Nevertheless, it has bright acidity, good concentration, and rocking purity of fruit, all pointing toward a good decade before it hits maturity. Dense purple, with lots of cassis, violets, spring flowers, crushed stone, and graphite, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, stunningly polished, silky tannins, and a great, great finish. I'll be a buyer.
Barrel Sample: 95-97 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Composed of 78% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2019 Pavie Macquin was harvested from the 23rd of September to the 11th of October. Yields were 47 hectoliters per hectare this year with about 90% of the production going into the grand vin. Deep garnet-purple in color, the wine opens with the most tantalizing perfume of lavender, lilacs and forest floor, giving way to a core of crushed blackberries, baked plums and blueberry preserves plus wafts of licorice and bay leaves. The full-bodied palate offers layer upon layer of black fruits and earthy nuances, sporting a solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and tons of freshness, finishing with great length and depth. About 5,500 cases are anticipated to be made.
Barrel Sample: 95-97
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.