Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This carries attractive blue-fruit aromas with an earthy and gently spicy edge. The palate has a sleek, suave and neatly balanced palate with fresh, bright acidity and great depth. Try from 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Côte Pavie has a medium to deep garnet-purple color and offers up pure, expressive black cherries, wild blueberries and kirsch scents with touches of menthol, cloves, cedar chest and lilacs. Full-bodied and packed with vibrant, energetic black fruits, it has a firm line of ripe, velvety tannins and bold freshness, finishing very long.
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Wine Spectator
Small in scale, but tightly focused, with sneaky length, offering a mix of red currant and damson plum coulis flavors that race through, lined with mouthwatering savory and chalk notes. The minerality is very persistent, shining easily thanks to minimal oak influence. It will be interesting to see how this ages. Best from 2021 through 2032.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Black cherries, dried earth, graphite, and some savory, rocky mineral notes all emerge from the 2016 Château Saint-Georges Côte Pavie. It's medium to full-bodied, has good concentration, and the classic minerality and limestone character of the terroir front and center. It's going to benefit from short-term cellaring. This estate has a wonderful terroir located between Pavie and Canon la Gaffelière.
Rating: 91+
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.