Tech Notes
Wine Details
James Suckling
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Decanter
Vinous
By Chateau Pavie
1er Grand Cru Classe "A"
Vineyard Details
Vintage: 2016
Appellation: Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
Location: South-east of the village of Saint-Emilion
Surface Area: 37 hectares
Average Vine Age: 48 years
Yield: 38 hl/ha
Soil
Chateau Pavie has a great diversity of soils, and it is interesting to place the vineyard geographically. Soils corresponding to the Saint-Emilion limestone plateau are located around 85 meters up from the Dordogne and are composed of clay-limestone on top of chalk with marine fossils. Soils corresponding to the mid-hillside land 55 meters up from the Dordogne are composed of a brown clay-limestone with a fine texture.
Vineyard Management
Many parcels of land have been replanted, and the vine-training system has been raised to increase leaf surface. Pruning down to six buds for the old vines and two for the young vines. Thinning, leaf-stripping, and grapes picked and sorted by hand.
Vinification and Aging
The vinification is adapted to the potential of the harvest. Twenty-one temperature-controlled wooden vats are used for a vatting time of 38 days. Malolactic fermentation in barrels. Aging in new oak and one-use wooden barrels.
Wine Details
Grape Varieties: 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon
Acidity: 3.75
pH: 3.49
[Information provided by West Coast Wine Group]
Region:
Bordeaux
Vintage:
2016
Grape:
Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon
Country:
France
Unit Size:
750.00 ML
Alcohol Percentage:
14.50
Appellation:
Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
Wine:Â Chateau Pavie St.-Emilion 2016
Score/Rating: 100
Review Date: 01/30/2026
Reviewed By:Â Jacobo Garcia Andrade
Tasting Notes:Â Chocolate, cedar, tar and dark fruit aromas. Big and powerful, with mouth-coating tannins, densely packed dark fruit and dark chocolate. One of the more formidable wines of the vintage. Still youthful, with lustrous tannins that will need some time, yet its underlying greatness is already evident. With aeration it's drinkable now, but it will benefit from cellaring. Drink or hold. 10 Years On retrospective.
Wine:Â 2016 Chateau Pavie
Score/Rating: 100
Suggested Drinking Window: 2021 - 2060
Review Date: 03/29/2019
Reviewed By:Â Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Tasting Notes:Â [...] Very deep purple-black in color, it needs a little coaxing to begin, slowly unfurling to reveal a fragrant perfume of violets, chocolate-covered cherries, crushed blueberries and eucalyptus over a core of preserved plums, kirsch, black raspberries and creme de cassis plus hints of licorice and chargrilled meat. Full-bodied and built like a brick house, it has a solid foundation of firm, super ripe, grainy tannins and seamless freshness interknit with the black fruit preserves and minerally layers, finishing very long and very decadent. Superb!
Wine:Â 2016 Chateau Pavie (St. Emilion Grand Cru)
Score/Rating: 99
Review Date: 09/26/2019
Reviewed By: Jeff Leve
Tasting Notes:Â Inky in color, the wine is powerful, dense, concentrated, full-bodied and packed to the gills with its unique blend of flowers, crushed stone, smoke, licorice, espresso and very ripe plums and black cherries. Thick and rich, with a finish that does not want to quit, this attention-seeking beauty demands at least 10-15 years in the cellar before it's ready for prime time drinking.
Wine:Â 2016 Chateau Pavie
Score/Rating: 99
Suggested Drinking Window:Â 2023 - 2073
Review Date: 02/28/2019
Reviewed By:Â Jeb Dunnuck
Tasting Notes: Turning the dial up considerably, the 2016 Chateau Pavie leaps out of the glass with a thrilling bouquet of creme de cassis, toasty oak, graphite, white truffle, crayons, and flowers. A blend of 60% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon [...], this full-bodied Pavie is made in a more elegant, seamless style compared to prior great vintages, yet it still has brilliant depth of fruit and concentration, ripe, present tannins, a seamless texture, and an awesome finish.
Wine:Â 2016 Pavie
Score/Rating: 97+
Suggested Drinking Window:Â 2029-2079
Review Date: 01/28/2026
Reviewed By:Â Ivar Bjurner
Tasting Notes:Â Pavie has a nose that oozes of cooked fruit, liquorice, rubber and deep and dark scents. It is indeed a 'dark and stormy' wine and very typical for Pavie in its expression. It is such a vibrant glass of wine, packed with fruit and loaded with dark tannins ready to deliver all its goodies when everything has melted together in some years. This is a classic wine offering a long aftertaste with fine spiciness and notes of dark liquorice and graphite.
Wine:Â Chateau Pavie St.-Emilion 2016
Score/Rating: 97
Suggested Drinking Window:Â Best from 2024 through 2040
Review Date: 03/31/20192
Reviewed By:Â James Molesworth
Tasting Notes:Â This is a rather showy - and captivating - display of fruit, with waves of lush cassis, raspberry and plum reduction flavors flowing through with authority and grace while a swath of chalky minerality stays deeply buried throughout. Toasty, glistening with vanilla and apple wood notes, but the fruit has the oak bridle easily in hand. One of the Right Bank showstoppers of the vintage. Best from 2024 through 2040.
Wine:Â Chateau Pavie 2016 Saint-Emilion
Score/Rating: 96 - Cellar Selection
Suggested Drinking Window:Â Drink from 2025
Review Date: 05/01/2019
Reviewed By:Â Roger Voss
Tasting Notes:Â This release underlines this estate's change in style towards more elegant wines. While concentrated, the wine has stylish layers of black-plum fruit, beautiful acidity and freshness. Black-chocolate flavors are fully integrated into the rich tannins. This will develop into a great wine. Drink from 2025.
Wine: Chateau Pavie, St-Emilion, 1er Grand Cru Classe A, Bordeaux, France 2016
Score/Rating: 94
Suggested Drinking Window:Â 2026 - 2050
Review Date: 01/21/2026
Reviewed By:Â Gareth Birchley
Tasting Notes:Â Exuberant and opulent, this wine shows rich red fruit with a bold, generous palate. A subtle sweetness of fruit defines its modern style, with medium-fine tannins and a slightly dry finish adding structure and tension.
Wine:Â 2016 Pavie
Score/Rating: 93
Suggested Drinking Window:Â 2028 - 2044
Review Date: 02/2026
Reviewed By:Â 2028 - 2044
Tasting Notes: The 2016 Pavie has an intense bouquet with slightly smudged black plum and boysenberry fruit, just missing the mineralite and terroir expression of its peers. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe tannins typical of Pavie, fine acidity, heady and powerful, with a dab of liquorice on the finish. Tasted at Bordeaux Index's 10 Year On tasting in London.
