With a hue so dark, it is impossible to see through, the wine grabs your senses with its aromatic profile consisting of flowers, black plums, blackberries, black cherries, crushed rocks, licorice, smoke, blue fruits, espresso, mocha and oceanic fragrances. The wine is full-bodied, concentrated, mouth-coating and palate-staining, as well as vibrant, pure and intense. The practically seamless, opulent finish with its layers of sensuous, salty fruits stick with you for close to 60 seconds. This is one of the great vintages of Pavie! Drink from 2026-2060. Tasted March 2023

Drink Date
2027 - 2062

Reviewed by - Lisa Perrotti-Brown


Composed of 50% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc and 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2020 Pavie weighs in with an alcohol of 14.82% and a pH of 3.61. It is aging in French oak barriques, 75% new. Opaque purple-black colored, notes of plum pudding, blueberry pie and dark chocolate-covered cherries charge out of the gate, followed closely by hints of eucalyptus, star anise, unsmoked cigars and fertile loam with a hint of cedar chest. The full-bodied palate is built like a brick house, offering very firm yet wonderfully ripe, velvety tannins and seamless freshness to support the densely laden, muscular black and blue fruits, finishing very long and with loads of mineral-laced layers. As hedonic as it is cerebral this year, it is a beautiful paradox.

The 2020 Pavie is very clearly one of the wines of the year. Rich, inky and wonderfully vibrant, it pulses with energy from start to finish. All the elements are well balanced. Soaring Cabernet Franc aromatics lead into a core of finely knit yet deep fruit in a wine that feels endless. Harvest for the reds started on September 17, paused briefly during some rain on the 25th and 26th, and then wrapped up by the end of the month. The blend is 50% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, so more Cabernets than in the past, the result of a large replanting program that began in the early 2000s. A real head-turner. Magnificent!

vinous.com

Smooth from the get go, still tense as you’d expect with a straight backbone, but the creamy texture is lovely with a beautiful balancing acidity and suaveness overall. More calm and quiet than I was expecting, certainly not shouting but with clear depth and length to the chocolate, blackcurrant, liquorice and graphite. Detailed and nuanced, not trying too hard with energy and plumpness yet retaining a serious, savouriness that brings you back to Pavie and to the terroir with clear minerality in the lick of wet stone on the finish. Well constructed with care. Drinking Window: 2027 - 2056
Tasted by: Georgina Hindle (at Bordeaux, 03 Jan 2023)
Part of St-Emilion 2020 in bottle: overview plus top-scoring wines

The 2020 Pavie was picked September 21–30 at 31hl/ha and matured in 75% new oak, the rest one year old. It continues to see greater emphasis on Cabernets – 34% Franc and 16% Sauvignon, the Merlot reduced to half the blend. This gradual rejigging of the blend is borne out on the nose, which features hints of damp loamy soil and bell pepper infusing vivid blackberry and wild strawberry fruit, becoming more and more citrusy with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with sautéed tannins that gently grip. Powerful, but the 14.82° alcohol is neatly disguised on the finish (at least in tasting measure) with fine delineation. Cohesive and focused. I would like to see a little more personality develop during élevage, but this remains an impressive Saint-Émilion and a Pavie with a long future ahead.

vinous.com

(50% M, 34% CF, 16% CS; 31hl/ha; 14.8% ABV)
Inky, dense blackberry and vanilla; rich, full, vital in acidity, firm tannin; the typical core finesse, 1er cru complexity and length within the still slightly wood-dry tannins, but pure and linear and fine and, as always, you taste the vineyard’s finesse at the heart of the firm frame; here is a fine rich fruit core, with considerable scope, plenty of long-term promise, and fine, scented length. Still clinging to the old “house style” texture a bit, meaning that, at a similar quality level, it doesn’t have the sheer class of the Clos Fourtet, for example. 2032–50+.

50% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon. Cask sample.
Power and elegance combined. Deep purple-black colour. Intensity and complexity on the nose with dark fruit, cassis, mint and floral notes. Beautifully poised on the palate with smooth attack and persistent fruit and freshness. Powerful tannic frame but tannins really fine and no extraction. Long, persistent finish. Absolute precision. More than highlights the change in style. One of the best yet. (JL)

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2020 Pavie sashays out with flamboyant notes of black and red cherries, black raspberries, and juicy plums opening out to fragrant underlying scents of forest floor, Sichuan pepper, and rose oil plus a hint of lavender. The medium to full-bodied palate is tightly wound and super-intense, delivering very fine-grained tannins and beautiful tension, finishing long and minerally. This is gorgeous! Lisa PPerrotti-Brown Dec 2023 - The Wine Independent

This opens up on your palate like a butterfly. It takes your breath away. Purity of blackberry, raspberry and black cherry. Lavender. Very, very impressive. Full and chewy with tight and polished tannins that go on and on. Energetic and structured. Crisp and vivid. Superb finish. Better after 2029 but a joy to taste. March 2023

Pure perfection in red wine, the 2020 Château Pavie checks in as 50% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, all raised in 75% new French oak. Absolutely incredible in every way, it has a sensational bouquet of crème de cassis, smoked tobacco, chocolaty oak, graphite, white truffle, and hints of flowers. Pure, full-bodied, and concentrated, with perfect integration of its fruit, oak, and tannins, it's one of those wines that needs to be tasted to be believed. Hats off to the Perse team for not following trends and for continuing to make a truly Grand Vin that offers a rare mix of power and elegance. Give bottles just 4-5 years and enjoy over the following three decades. March 2023