Chateau Pavie 2009
Chateau Pavie 2009 is the largest St.Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé, with over 35 hectares of vineyards located exclusively on the St-Emilion Cotes. Pavie is situated south-east of the village of St-Emilion and its vineyards lie on a south-facing slope of the famous limestone plateau.
Pavie’s vineyards are bordered by those of Chateau La Gaffeliere and Chateau Pavie-Decesse. For many years the property was owned and run by Jean-Paul Valette. In 1998 Gerard Perse, who also owns Pavie-Decesse and Monbousquet, purchased it. Pavie’s wine is typically a blend of 55% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. Since 1998, the grapes have been fermented in spanking new wooden vats with the wine then being aged in 100% new oak bariques for 18 months. It is bottled unfiltered.
Pavie produces elegant, harmonious and stylish St-Emilions that typically display a fine bouquet with good depth of fruit on the palate. Under the Perse regime Pavie has become richer, more intense and more concentrated.
Chateau Pavie is planted to 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. This represents a change in the vineyard with less Merlot and more Cabernet Franc. In addition to replanting, trellis wires throughout the vineyard were raised in order to increase the vines’ foliage.
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 Feret’s “Bordeaux et ses vins.” In 1850, the first edition was already high on the wines from Pavie as they named it one of the First classed Growths in Saint Emilion. A portion of Chateau Pavie was sold off in 1885, interestingly, the same year that the famous, classification of the Medoc took place, to the well known, Bordeaux 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!
