Chateau Pavie - Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2016

Wine Region:Bordeaux - France

Grape:60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon

Tasting notes:On the nose, the 2016 vintage of Château Pavie offers an intense and well-defined bouquet of black fruits, interspersed with floral and mineral (graphite) notes. Medium-bodied on the palate, Château Pavie 2016 exhibits ripe and silky tannins that delicately line the palate. It is a velvety and charming wine.

About the winery:The slopes of Chateau Pavie and Ausone were first planted by the ancient Romans in the fourth century. However, Chateau Pavie did not become famous as a Bordeaux wine producer until almost two thousand years later. Chateau Pavie was definitely famous by the mid 19th century. At the time, the Robert Parker of the day was the Bordeaux bible published by Cocks and Féret’s “Bordeaux et ses vins” written in 1850, the first edition was already high on the wines from Pavie as they named it one of the First classed growths in St. Emilion. A portion of Chateau Pavie was sold off in 1885 to the well known, Bordeaux wine negociant Ferdinand Bouffard. It was Bouffard’s desire to increase the size of the vineyards. In time, he managed to put together a 50-hectare vineyard with an annual production that ranged from 12,500 to 15,000 cases per year. That made Chateau Pavie one of the largest estates in the Right Bank! By the late 1800′s, Pavie and Pavie Decesse were fully separate estates. Close to the same time, the Macquin family was also busy purchasing parcels of Bordeaux vineyards too. Those purchases led to the creation of Chateau Pavie Macquin. Jumping ahead to the next century and the start of the First World War, Ferdinand Bouffard sold Chateau Pavie to Albert Porte who eventually sold to the Valette family. The Valette’s were well known Bordeaux wine négociants from Paris. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because Christine Valette is the owner of Chateau Troplong Mondot. Chateau Pavie was classified as Premier Grand Cru Classé “B” while under the Valette family’s management in 1954. That changed in 2012 with the new Classification of St. Emilion as Chateau Pavie was elevated to Premier Grand Cru Classé A!