Chateau Pavie Macquin Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2008

The 2008 Pavie-Macquin is fabulous. An exceptionally beautiful wine, the 2008 is positively stellar. In the glass, the 2008 is aromatically deep, silky and vibrant. The year was marked by an extremely long growing season with an early start and a late harvest that kept getting pushed back because of unusually cool nights. The Cabernets came in only at the end of October.

Consultants Nicolas Thienpont and Stephane Derenoncourt have produced a beautiful St.-Emilion that tastes like the quintessence of crushed rocks intermixed with blueberry, blackberry, black raspberry, licorice, camphor and truffle notes. This full-bodied effort should drink well in 4-5 years, and last for two decades or more. It achieved 14.5% natural alcohol.

The 2008 Pavie-Macquin was decanted for 60 minutes before pouring. It is surprisingly backward on the nose and demanded another 30 minutes to really open, offering luscious scents of black cherry, boysenberry, crushed violet and light camphor scents that recede with continued aeration. The palate is still concentrated with layers of black fruit tinged with dark chocolate, a little heady in style but retaining sufficient balance to uphold its freshness. It is a feisty and extrovert Pavie-Macquin that feels undiminished at a decade out and in fact, I would afford bottles another four or five years to allow more terroir expression and secondary notes to develop. This has enormous potential, but winemaker Nicolas Thienpont produced a wine for those with patience. (Tasted at the château and at BI Wine & Spirits annual vertical tasting.)

Sliced plums and almost peaches on the nose. Love it. Mineral and truffles too. Full bodied, and powerful with a long, long finish. Sneaks up on you. Give it three to four years before trying.

Glass-staining purple-black. Very pure, complex merlot-dominated nose offers deep scents of plum, black cherry, smoke and minerals. Black cherry syrup and bay leaf flavors coat the palate, leaving a long and suave trail of flavor on the back. The still-youthful tannins are anything but shy but not so powerful that they would detract from the pleasure of drinking this wine after a couple years of cellaring. This solidly built Pavie-Macquin should go on in bottle for at least 15 or 20 years.