2024 Chateau Pavie Macquin Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru

The 2024 Pavie Macquin is positively gorgeous. Silky, layered and voluptuous, the 2024 is so impressive right out of the gate. Plush contours wrap around a core of purplish fruit, lavender, licorice, spice, menthol and chocolate. All the signatures of this site come through loud and clear. Savory and floral notes supported by clean veins of salinity extend the persistent finish. Pavie Macquin shows what was possible in 2024. The choice to harvest everything in October (from the 3rd to the 8th) paid off big time. Aging is in French oak, with about 15% in larger 500-liter barrels, 45% new wood overall. Tasted three times.

Up on the limestone plateau of St Emilion, the whole game in 2024 has been how to handle the austerity without rendering things too tight. Here they have got the balance right - delicate, sappy, drawn out, vivid blackberry and cassis fruits with hidden density, nothing overt but plenty of power and grip. 3.3ph, harvest 3 to 8 October. 42 hl/ha, touch of saignée. Harvesting entirely in October, from 3 to 8, Stéphane Derenoncourt consultant with Nicolas Thienpont.

The 2024 Pavie Macquin has an impressive bouquet for the vintage, quite composed and delineated with brambly red fruit, sous-bois and light rose petal scents. The palate is medium-bodied and nicely chiselled compared to its peers, with pliant tannins and a fresh, saline finish. It does not have the persistence of other vintages that fire on all cylinders, but this is a success for 2024.

The 2024 Pavie Macquin offers up attractive aromas of raspberries, violets, rose petals and spices, framed by a discreet 45% new oak. Medium to full-bodied, ample and pure, it's built around a tangy, somewhat assertive spine of acidity that lends this wine an angular, edgy profile. Of course, that may integrate with additional élevage.

84% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Cask sample. Spicy notes. Backward but seems to have plenty of substance. Firm tannins with tension on the palate. Persistent. Needs to come together but the potential is there. (JL)