Chateau Pavie Macquin Premier Grand Cru Classe B, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru 2023

This is a twitchy, lively red with brambleberry, black olive and a real sense of limestone. The tannins are very well integrated. Lots of energy. Medium body. Extremely long. Very cool, fine wine from this estate in this year. 3.35 pH. 14.2% alcohol. 82% merlot, 17% cabernet franc and 1% cabernet sauvignon. Best ever?

The 2023 Pavie Macquin is a wine of power and structure. Dark fruit, mocha, grilled herbs and incense are some of the notes that open in the glass. In most vintages, Pavie Macquin is a much showier wine. The 2023, on the other hand, is going to need at least a few years in bottle to be at its best and most expressive. It emerges nicely with aeration.

Super fragranced on the nose, really floral and evocative with heady aromas - expressive, ripe and sweet fruit elements too. Super high acidity on the palate, but actually this really works with a soft chalky, powdery bite to the tannins. It’s touching on lean, more straight and less concentrated than Larcis Ducasse at this point. The focus here is the fun, lifted side. So precise, finessed, and detailed with layers of fine tannins, bright fruit and tons of energy yet still with concentration and firm red summer berry fruit. I love it.

Touch of gunsmoke reduction softens to show gentle grilled oak notes, skilful construction, cocoa bean, espresso, blueberry, pomegranate, oyster shell salinity. This has grip and intensity, tension, energy, a brooding quality that switches into a vertical lift through the palate. Brilliant construction, and a joyful reflection of the power of terroir. 48hl/ha. Thienpont-Derenoncourt team, celebrating 30 years of collaboration, Corre-Macquin family, Nicolas Thienpont director director. Tasted twice.

The 2023 Pavie Macquin is deep garnet-purple in color. Wow! It prances out with a showy perfume of lilacs, iris bulb, star anise, sandalwood, and Sichuan pepper leading to a core of redcurrant jelly, wild blueberries, and black raspberries plus earthy suggestions of moss-covered tree bark and fallen leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate shimmers with energetic red and black berry layers, framed by firm fine-grained tannins and magic tension, finishing very long with lots of chalky and red berry sparks. This is electric. The pH this year is 3.40.

A Merlot-dominant blend of 82% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon from a cooler, north-facing terroir, the 2023 Château Pavie Macquin is always one of my favorite wines in Saint-Emilion. Aged 18 months in 50% new barrels with the balance in second-fill oak and a portion in cement tanks, it sports a deep ruby/plum hue as well as great aromatics of darker, almost blue fruits, crushed stone, and graphite. Medium-bodied on the palate, it has a concentrated, structured, mineral-laced profile with the integrated acidity that's the hallmark of this terroir. Hide bottles for a decade if you can, and it will see its 30th birthday in fine form. Drink 2036-2053.

The 2023 Pavie Macquin has a slightly more tertiary, forest-floor-tinged bouquet than its peers. Touches of pine filter through the black fruit, well-defined and focused. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, velvety in texture, closing up toward the finish that exerts insistent grip. Good substance here, but it will require longer in bottle before it is open for business.

Aromas of sweet raspberries, cherries and plums mingle with notions of licorice and creamy new oak, introducing the 2023 Pavie Macquin, a medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated wine with a deep core of fruit, tangy acids and powdery tannins. As higher density plantings on the plateau with superior vine genetics start to enter into production, and as the south of the property is restructured, this estate's tannins are becoming more refined, even if the very low pH of 3.35 still tends to foreground the wine's structure.