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Château Pavie Premier Grand Cru Classé A Saint-Émilion Grand Cru 2021

Reviews

97 -James Suckling -

96 -Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider -

The blend of dark, red cherries, salty crushed stones, flowers, licorice, chocolate, and espresso works to create the attention seeking perfume. Moderately less concentrated than recent vintages, but with more vibrancy, energy, and finesse, the wine delivers its salty, essence of red fruits, spice, and chocolate-mint with ease. There is tension and ample dark, red fruits that carry through to the endnote. The wine blends 52% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink from 2028-2060.

96 -Jeb Dunnuck -

As to the Grand Vin, the saturated ruby/purple-hued 2021 Château Pavie defies the vintage with its ripe, powerful aromatics of cassis, toasted spice, chalky minerality, graphite, and hints of truffly earth. A rich, medium to full-bodied, concentrated, incredibly textured 2021, it has velvety tannins, no hard edges, and a gorgeous finish. It's a testament to the talent and work of this incredible team and is up with the crème de la crème of the vintage. The 2021 is based on 52% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, brought up in a mix of new and used barrels, hitting 14.14% alcohol and a pH of 3.67. It’s going to age for 20-25 years if well stored.

96 -Decanter -

Extremely dark aromatics on the nose, dark bramble fruits, cedar and liquorice with a really vibrant but dark indigo rim to the wine. Focussed and sharp, high toned in the best way, this really makes you smile when you first taste it, the juicy but almost sweet acidity making the mouth water while salty, but so well defined tannins coat the mouth giving the structure and support. Lovely finesse and movement from start to finish and an excellent weight too - deep and round but straight and pristine. Feels a bit relaxed, quite elegant and not pushed or too tense at this point. A lovely wine to drink, acidity, fruit purity, fine tannins and a sense of balance and good construction. Still a little constricted on the finish, this will need time, but when it hits its drinking window this will be lovely to drink. Fresh and invigorating but keeping the structure and power.

94 -Wine Spectator -

Technical Details

Blend 52% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon
Winemaker Michel Rolland
Country France
Region Bordeaux
Sub Region Right Bank
Appellation Saint-Émilion
Vineyard Château Pavie
Farming Method 70% of the vineyard is farmed using organic methods
Oak French oak barrels, 75% new
Fermentation Fermented for three weeks in 20 temperature controlled wooden vats
Aging / Cooperage French oak barrels, 75% new
Alcohol 14.5%

Château Pavie Premier Grand Cru Classé A Saint-Émilion Grand Cru 2021

Name: Château Pavie Premier Grand Cru Classé A Saint-Émilion Grand Cru 2021
Brand: First Bottle
SKU: 1014710
Price: 224.95 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

Bordeaux Blends | Bordeaux

JS97, JL96, JD96, DC96, WS94

70% of the vineyard is farmed using organic methods

$435.00

$224.95

750ML

48% OFF RETAIL!

Château Pavie’s history stretches back to Roman times, when vines were first cultivated on this extraordinary south-facing limestone hillside above the village of Saint-Émilion. The modern era began in 1998 when Gérard Perse acquired the estate and set about transforming it into a contender for the very top of the Saint-Émilion hierarchy, a goal that was formally recognized in 2012 when Pavie was elevated to Premier Grand Cru Classé A, sharing the appellation’s highest tier alongside Ausone, Cheval Blanc, and Angélus. The 2021 reflects a significant evolution in the estate’s winemaking direction: a blend of 52% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 75% new oak, with the increasing proportion of Cabernet marking a deliberate shift toward more linear, mineral-driven elegance while preserving the concentration and power for which Pavie is known.

The 2021 is a wine that defies the vintage’s modest reputation. James Suckling awarded 97, describing a very complex, flinty, and iodine-edged wine of dense yet energetic character, with chalk, gunpowder, and red currant on a long and racy finish, recommending patience through 2029. Jeb Dunnuck awarded 96, noting that the wine defies the vintage with ripe, powerful aromatics of cassis, toasted spice, chalky minerality, graphite, and hints of truffly earth, calling it rich, medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and incredibly textured, with velvety tannins and no hard edges. Vinous also awarded 96, calling it potent and brooding. Decanter 96, Wine Spectator 94. The Wine Independent’s Lisa Perrotti-Brown described it as very closed on release, needing coaxing to reveal fresh black plums, black raspberries, wild blueberries, lilacs, and crushed rocks, the palate taut and tense with beautiful freshness, calling it “so, so pretty.” A Premier Grand Cru Classé A with a decade or more of evolution ahead, at an incredibly well-priced level for the address. Very limited. Grab yours now.

About The Producer

The name itself comes from "pavies," the peaches once cultivated on these south-facing terraces in Roman times, a reminder of how long this particular slope in Saint-Émilion has been prized for what it can ripen. Vines here appear in records as far back as the 4th century, and by 1850 the first edition of Cocks & Féret had already ranked Pavie among Saint-Émilion's first-class growths. The decisive modern chapter began in 1998, when Gérard Perse, a self-made supermarket mogul turned passionate wine estate builder, acquired the property and immediately set about a sweeping reinvention: gravity-fed systems, optical sorting, temperature-controlled wooden vats, dramatically reduced yields, and cellar infrastructure rebuilt from the ground up. Michel Rolland came on as consulting winemaker, and the results came quickly. The 2000 vintage was the first Pavie to receive a perfect 100-point score from Robert Parker, with subsequent perfect scores following for the 2009, 2015, and 2020. In 2012 the estate was elevated to Premier Grand Cru Classé A, the highest rank in the Saint-Émilion system, and in 2022 the vineyard was expanded further with the absorption of Pavie-Decesse and Château Bellevue Mondotte. Gérard Perse passed away in July 2025 at the age of 75, leaving behind one of the most consequential ownership legacies in modern Bordeaux history. Today the estate is led by his wife Chantal and son-in-law Henrique da Costa, who oversee 50 hectares of vines across a single uninterrupted block — one of the largest Premier Grand Cru Classé holdings in the appellation.

$435.00

$224.95

750ML

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