TN: 2001 Château Pavie (France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru)

WINE TALK
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  • 2001 Château Pavie - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (6/13/2009)
    Enjoyed while watching game 7 of the stanley cup (great win by Pittsburgh). Very showy nose that couldn’t have been anything other than Bordeaux - some smoke and earth and cedar shavings dancing in and around dark fruits. Lush on the palate with waves of cassis and other red and blue fruits. Fine tannins are part of an impressively long finish. The 01 Pavie has a great combo of intensity and finesse - a great balancing act. This was opened to breath for about two hours and put on weight over the three hours we enjoyed it.

This is drinking remarkably well but I’d gamble that it has years and years ahead of it. It probably deserves another point at least given how it improved over the evening. (94 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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I have consistently enjoyed this vintage of Pavie. Don’t know what its selling for now, but I used to be able to get it on sale for $99.00. Thanks for the note!

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I don’t see it lasting more than 2 years. Here’s my note:

  • 2001 Château Pavie - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (12/24/2008)
    Seems a bit ‘designed’ to me - drinks like a MUCH older Bordeaux, something from the late 80’s, possibly. The brett, rounded tannins, ripe fruit, all speak of, if nothing else, that this wine needs to be consumed in the short term.

Posted from CellarTracker

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“Tasted twice, with consistent results” . . .

This is not my experience with this wine.

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and here is my note… from a few months ago

  • 2001 Château Pavie - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (3/8/2009)
    We decanted this, but didn’t let it sit for very long prior to diving in. Scents of blackberry liqueur, cassis and black licorice dominate with a touch of earth or perhaps pencil shavings in the background. Initially a little tight but really rounded out nicely after an hour or so to show a wonderful silky texture with a nice balance of fruit and tannin. Very enjoyable and it showed best right as we were finishing the bottle. Next time out we’ll decent this for at least 2 or 3 hours before consumption as I think that would be the perfect treatment at this stage of development, or perhaps wait just a couple or so more years. 92-94. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker


You can’t tell me that this collection of notes even in this thread is not worth more to the average consumer then one single note from a single professional critic. Here you have a bunch of relatively experienced wine drinkers sharing their opinions. I’ll take that any day and it didn’t cost me a dime. (CT annual donation doesn’t count)

CT Rules!!! [berserker.gif]

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And WineBerserker donation…that doesn’t count either

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The '01 Pavie does not suck, nor does its little brother Pavie Decesse.

All that Pepsi has tainted your taste buds Mr. French.

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There are others who agree with me, by the way.

And they drink Coke.

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Mr. French,

I can’t disagree with you more about how this is holding up. Yes, it drinks exceptionally well currently and I agree about the rounded tannins and ripe fruit. However, there are zero secondary notes on this wine yet and I probably wouldn’t expect any for at least another 5-10 years. Perhaps you are saying they will never develop?

Time will tell, but BDX history is against you on this one. I’ll wait it out and see while drinking a few along the way.


Bill - Why do you call Pavie Decesse the “little brother”? Not disagreeing, just wondering why. Is the terroir considered inferior? Are the vines younger?

Chris

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Chris - ‘Mr.’…

[rofl.gif]

I was drinking this alongside '05 Larcis Ducasse, '05 Pontet Canet, and '03 Quilceda Creek Merlot (as a bit of a ringer), all blind, all decanted at least 4-6 hours. The '01 Pavie wasn’t cooked or corked, but just seemed like Bordeaux from 1989 or so - something MUCH older - in how its secondary characteristics came out. To me, it had that Bordeaux-esque brett/terroir/anise/musk behaviors, as if it was, as I said, ‘designed’ to. It seemed in no way similar to the other BDX, and at least 15 years older.

Of the four wines, and the three people drinking them, the Pavie was the only one universally panned. Two of us panned the QC, but all of us had the same reactions to the Pavie, particularly when next to PC and LD

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Well damn, Todd. How could you taste anything along side those two 2005s?
[whistle2.gif]

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Good point, actually.

I had massive palate fail at UGC, and when I finally got to the Sauternes table, it was like a sweet heavenly cleansing from all the tannic mess I had just tasted.

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We had that 05 tasting at Chris’ house a month or so ago. Talk about palate fatigue. It was almost impossible for me to distinguish between any of the first six wines. The second six was easier, probably because of dinner.

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No brett at all in the bottle I opened last night. The wine had tons of life and spark and no hints of approaching maturity (colour, fragrance or palate) . I’ll happily open another bottle in 5 and 10 years to see where it heads. I’m not saying that this is a 25+ year wine but it will easily outpace this and well in to the next decade. It was far best 5 hours after opening fwiw.

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Todd, I’m wondering if something was wrong with the particular bottle you were served.

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Todd, I’m wondering if something was wrong with the particular bottle you were served.

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I think Todd was handed a bad bottle…wonder what schmuck traded with him for it. [berserker.gif]

Spivey, I only call PD the little brother because it doesn’t have the cache that Pavie has. I think the 2001 was every bit its equal.

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Todd, I think you got a stinker bottle. This wine is the good stuff. I have been knocked out by it three times:

  • 2001 Château Pavie - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (6/22/2007)
    Big winner. Mmm, big, chunky, gripping. Mineral, tobacco, some espresso wafting in but the wood is very subtle. Saturated, faintly sweet but finishes out with great restraint. Truly awesome concentration.
  • 2001 Château Pavie - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (11/17/2005)
    Young, primary and exotic, this wine was mind-blowing. The nose is crazily perfumed, literally filling the room with notes of flowers and chocolate. After an hour in the glass we dove in, and this was stunning. Thick, rich, port-like, far more primary than I recall from a prior taste, loaded with licorice and chocolate. And yet, despite the huge initial attack, the palate was stunningly lithe and supple, finishing crazily smooth and long without a hint of heaviness. This is going to be a fun wine to track over the next 15 years! (96 pts.)
  • 2001 Château Pavie - France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru (5/21/2005)
    The Mother of All Cult-Cab Tastings 2001 (TMOACCT) (Seattle, WA): Wow, the clear wine of the flight, and it seems obvious that it is Bordeaux, albeit a very ripe example. The nose shows that Bordeaux high toast, smoky, medicinal, espresso roast, resin, some barnyard, charcoal, and tobacco announce this as Bordeaux. The palate has awesome minerality and sweet fruit yet with such an old-world personality. At first this is very tight and short on the finish, but the more air this drinks up the longer and more generous it becomes. This is a fantastic young bottle of Bordeaux, and I’m loading up! (96 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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It’s possible that the wine will age well, but “Bordeaux history” isn’t a valid basis for making that forecast. Pavie is a new phenomenon with no historical precedent.

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The 1998 Pavie - which got huge points from Parker in an old Hedonist Gazette article - was completely dead at age ten.

No midpalate, no fruit, no aromatics - just limp, dead, off-brown grape juice lying lifeless in the stemware.

[OTOH, at the very same tasting, the 1998 Palmer- OMG what a wine!!! It’s got another 40 or 50 years ahead of it before it peaks.]