Château Pavie, 2025 - Magnum
Château Pavie, 2025 - Magnum
- 150cl
- 14.5%
- Red Still
- Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
Please note, en primeur wines are not available for delivery until they arrive in the UK
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Est. delivery in 2028
Château Pavie sits at the summit of Saint-Émilion's most coveted slope, where limestone meets clay in perfect harmony. Since Gérard Perse took the helm, this Premier Grand Cru Classé A has become one of the Right Bank's most powerful and polarising wines.
What the critics say:
"Fragrant apple blossom, iris and violet flowers on the nose, brings its A-game from the first moments; coupling bright greengage plums, rose stems, and an intense grip of slate, with creamier blackberries, damson and creme patissiere. A ton of grip and length, this is in it for the long game, with pulses of oyster shell minerality to close things out. Brilliant. Here they did 8 weeks maceration, longer than most, but they felt that the wines needed a little longer to fill out through the mid palate, and for sure this is showing exceptional expansion and tension. Harvest September 15 to 29, first time in the Perse era that this has been entirely in September - and the final vintage under Gerard Perse. Pavie Decesse and Bellevue Mondot are now included in the main wine, bringing their limestone soils to the blend, and this is the highest amount of Cabernet to date. 21hl/ha yield, 3.58ph."
"Deep dark ruby garnet, opaque core, violet reflections, subtle edge brightening. Fine black berry fruit, a hint of cassis, black cherries, hints of candied orange zest, some nougat, underlaid with subtle precious wood. Powerful, but very juicy, round and elegant, great freshness, ripe, fine tannins, extract sweet and long-lasting, modern, yet very connected to the terroir, great length, sure maturity potential."
"The 2025 Pavie is a total stunner. What a wine. Rich and dazzling in its intensity, the 2025 hits all the right notes. Inky dark red/purplish fruit, exotic spice, mocha, espresso and pomegranate literally stain the palate. The 2025 is going to require the better part of a decade to unwind, but it has a ton of potential and a very bright future. This is the first time Cabernet Franc is the dominant variety in the Grand Vin. The 2025 has plenty of the textural intensity readers have come to expect, but with less of the heavy extraction that marked the earlier years."
"Intensely fragrant nose, full of black fruit, chocolate, perfumed violets and cassis. Heady and concentrated. Ripe and fleshy fruit on the palate, the tannins have a really chewy aspect that fills the mouth with texture and grip but with a vein of cooling acidity through the middle. Ends soft and cool, with a long minty, liquorice core. Chewy, fleshy, but cool, I quite like the upfront nature, it’s filling and wide but not overly intrusive or dry. Cool blue fruits and a long slightly chalky powdery finish. All the makings of a great Pavie and feels hands off for what It could have been. 3.58pH. A yield of 21hl/ha."
Pavie's 37 hectares spread across Saint-Émilion's limestone plateau and south-facing slopes, with the best parcels sitting on pure limestone bedrock overlaid with clay. The elevation reaches 100 metres, providing excellent drainage and forcing vines to dig deep for nutrients. This combination of limestone subsoil and clay topsoil creates wines with both power and minerality, whilst the steep slopes maximise sun exposure and enhance phenolic ripeness in the thick-skinned Merlot that dominates the blend.
Saint-Émilion represents the Right Bank's most prestigious appellation, where Merlot reigns supreme over limestone and clay soils. Unlike the Médoc's gravel-based Cabernet Sauvignon country, Saint-Émilion's cooler, clay-rich terroir favours earlier-ripening varieties. The appellation's classification system, revised every decade, currently recognises just four Premier Grand Cru Classé A properties, with Pavie achieving this pinnacle status in 2012. The wines tend toward richness and approachability compared to their Left Bank counterparts, though the top estates like Pavie age magnificently.
The 2025 Bordeaux vintage emerged from one of the most demanding growing seasons in recent memory — the earliest budbreak since 1989, June temperatures second only to 2003 since records began, and an unusually early harvest beginning in August for the whites. Conditions that should have produced heavy, overripe wines. They didn't. Decanter's Georgie Hindle, who tasted close to 200 wines ahead of the formal campaign, describes "exceptional concentration, aromatic purity and a freshness that contradicts the record-breaking heat.
The early critical consensus places 2025 stylistically between the precision of 2020 and the structure of 2016, with the brightness of 2023 — a combination that suggests a very serious vintage indeed. Yields are dramatically low, the smallest crop since 1991, with production across the Gironde running around 15% below the five-year average. The quality is here. There simply isn't very much of it.
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Château Pavie
