Chateau Pavie Saint-Emilion 2019 99pts

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99 Points Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Château Pavie is another beauty that offers more density and sexiness than just about every other wine in the vintage, yet it is still an unnecessarily restrained expression of this terroir, which is the fad in Bordeaux these days. Based on 50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon that was brought up in 80% new French oak, this deep purple-hued effort has a great bouquet of ripe black cherries, darker currants, tobacco leaf, violets, and graphite, with a beautiful sense of minerality and salinity on the palate. Full-bodied, concentrated, and powerful, it has plenty of background oak, a deep, layered mid-palate, terrific tannins, and a great finish. It shows the more understated, elegant style of the vintage yet is still pure Pavie. Hide bottles for 5-7 years and enjoy over the following 30+. Best After 2027

99 Points Wine Enthusiast
This wine has an aristocratic air. The tannins and fruit flavors are rich but not showy, indicating how this estate has found its stride. With its firm structure and bold black fruit tones, it is going to be a wine for long-term aging.

98 Points James Suckling
Lots of blackberry and grilled meat with earth and spice. Some smoky undertones, too. Blackcurrants. Complex. Full-bodied with round, juicy tannins, yet they turn extremely fine and very linear and go on for minutes. Great length. A blend of 50% merlot, 32% cabernet franc and 18% cabernet sauvignon. Best after 2027, but already a joy to drink.

97 Points Wine Spectator
Dreamy right from the start, with a seductive mouthfeel to its mix of raspberry puree, cassis and creamed plum flavors infused with rooibos tea, black licorice and alder accents. Long and extremely fine-grained through the finish, with subtle floral lift and a lingering hint of chalky minerality. Gorgeous. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Best from 2025.

96 Points Decanter
Excellent quality Pavie, rippling with black fruits. Notably more subdued than in some vintages as the team looks to reframe just slightly the bulging muscles of the past, and as the high levels of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc make an impact. It takes a moment to adjust to, but when you sit with it, you feel a rippling frame to the wine, and a juicy central core. Fleshy cassis and blackberry fruits, slate walls and black truffle overlay. Is going to age extremely well.

96 Vinous
The 2019 Pavie was sent directly from the château to my home in mid-January. Given the freedom to decant, I decided to examine this Saint-Émilion, the only "A" left standing at time of writing, over a 24-hour period. It has a very controlled and focused nose, one that completely contradicts those that still claim that somehow Pavie is overripe or picked too late. This is delineated, clean and precise – dare I say, almost "classic" in style. Those blackberry and incense aromas that I remarked upon from the barrel sample remain in situ, and the floral component is enhanced, suggesting iris rather than violet. The palate is medium-bodied, yet full in the mouth, the tannins lacquering though not overwhelming. The oak is neatly integrated, building very nicely, and the copious black fruit is laced with graphite and tobacco courtesy of the Cabernets, which, lest we forget, constitute half the 2019 blend. I noticed how, after three hours, the tannins become more prominent, toughening up a little, the Cabernets edging out the Merlot and lending more of a Left Bank-like personality. Then, after 24 hours, the wine mellows and becomes plush, putting quite a distance between itself and the more ostentatious Pavie-Decesse. It shuts down a little on the finish, a timely reminder that this Pavie will need plenty of cellaring. But this is going to be an awesome Saint-Émilion.

94 Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
While the 2019 Pavie does display a touch more restraint that the wines produced here a decade ago, it remains one of the most powerful, extracted wines in all of Bordeaux, exhibiting a glass-staining, opaque purple-black color and a rich bouquet of cherries, blackberries and berry fruit liqueur mingled with sweet spices, loamy soil, licorice and rose petals. Full-bodied, powerful and muscular, it's thick and textural, with a layered, multidimensional mid-palate laden with ripe fruit and rich, chewy tannins, concluding with a long, youthfully grippy finish. The evolution of the early Pese-era wines at age 20 leads me to suspect that time will be kind to this 2019, but couldn't this great site—which naturally delivers elevated maturity combined with low pH—be rendered with more charm and sensuality? Best After 2029.

17.5/20 Jancis Robinson
Deep purple-black to the rim. Dark, ripe and complex with a leafy, blackcurrant note. Still assertively tannic and powerful but there’s a little more restraint and the tannins are polished and refined. Cool limestone terroir shows. Finishes on a muscly, chewy note. Plenty of wine but will need time.

Wine Notes
50% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon