CHÂTEAU PAVIE

Rating: 90 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (Apr 2016)

For me, this redefines Pavie. The depth and intensity and more important, the clarity, is really something. Full and ultra-fine tannins. It shows such great tannins and finesse. It is the essences of Pavie. Rating: 100 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2016)

One of the wines of the vintage, the 2015 Pavie is dense, powerful and seamless. A huge, spherical wine, even for the year, the 2015 exudes depth. Even with all of its intensity, the 2015 retains striking freshness and nuance, with plenty of bright red stone fruit and floral notes taking center stage. The super-extracted, oak-driven style that was such a Pavie signature a decade ago seems to be giving way to a more refined approach that showcases fruit, richness and purity. This is a superb showing from Gerard Perse and consulting winemaker Michel Rolland. Rating: 95-98 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)

No information on the assemblage was presented here, with no technical staff present at the tasting. With a large swathe of the vineyard dedicated to Cabernet Franc though, I am sure it will feature prominently. The alcohol is 14.55%. This has very dark, baked black fruits on the nose, black cherry with scents of blackberry pie, slightly smudged, with sweet vanilla notes. The palate is bold, with creamed fruit substance, but it feels a little cooler and more restrained than some of the other Perse wines, at least at the start. There is a greater sense of balance here, big in body and substance, but appropriate, composed, with smoky fruit and plush texture. Underneath there is a broad underbelly of ripe, velvety, fairly fine-grained tannins, and a lot of honeyed oak, but it feels more together. A really big, bold, broad finish, with a long tannic grip, but it is not completely overdone. This will need fifteen or twenty years, but it is starting out from a big, confident position. Rating: 17.5-18.5/20 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2016)

This delivers some serious fruit firepower, with blueberry, blackberry and plum notes that pump along authoritatively, pulling the creamy tannins along with them. Echoes of tobacco and violet emerge through the finish, along with a buried mineral accent. A contender for wine of the vintage on the Right Bank. Rating: 95—98 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2016)