CRITIC REVIEWS
Robert M. Parker, Jr.
While the Perses may think the 2005 is the summit of winemaking at Pavie, this vintage certainly gives serious competition to both the 2005 and 2000. It is certainly the most opulent and luxuriously rich wine Pavie has ever made (and that is saying something). Pavie’s style of low yields, ripe fruit and serious extraction does produce, even in lighter vintages, a very concentrated and dense wine, but in the great years, the results are legendary. This wine has an inky purple color and a stunningly sweet, ripe nose of mulberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, licorice and incense. The oak still has some presence in the aromatics, as well as in the full-bodied, very concentrated, skyscraper-like mouthfeel and texture. This wine feels almost as if you could lose your palate in it, it is so dense and deep, yet at the same time it possesses silky tannins and rather remarkable purity, balance, and a good 60-second-plus finish. This is an amazing wine and probably will be drinkable in 5-10 years (although actually it could be drunk now because of the vintage’s voluptuous texture), and again, seems to have 50 or more years of longevity. It is clearly a modern Bordeaux legend.
Neal Martin
Served blind at the Southwold 2009 tasting. The Pavie ‘09 has a lovely ripe bouquet with blackberry and dark plum fruit. It exudes restraint and class. The palate is medium-bodied with crisp acidity, a lovely citrus fruit but with a slightly baked quality towards the finish. Still, overall this is a lovely Saint Emilion, one that stylistically surprised a few experienced palates when its identity was revealed. I think it will merit a higher mark in the future. Tasted January 2013.