Vines have been growing at Château Pavie since the fourth century AD. The estate was classified a Premier Grand Cru Classé B in 1954, when it was owned by the Valette family. Gérard Perse acquired Pavie in 1998.

The estate unquestionably has one of the finest terroirs in Saint-Emilion. The vines grow in a single block on three distinct types of soil (the limestone plateau, the Saint-Emilion slope with deep clay soil, and the foot of the slope with clay-sand soil), each with a correspondingly different microclimate.

The wine definitely gains a great deal from this remarkable geological diversity. The soil is naturally meager and the vineyard has been gradually restructured over the past decade in order to plant the most appropriate grape variety in each plot. The vines have ideal south-facing sun exposure and the slope part of the vineyard has excellent natural drainage.

However, the grapes at Pavie are not early-maturing. They are picked by hand and taken on a conveyor belt to a sorting table located above the vats, where they are crushed and destemmed before going into vat.

Gérard Perse and Michel Rolland seek low yields for maximum quality.

Pavie changed style somewhat with the new owners, and is now naturally powerful and very rich.

In the Bottle

Since 1998, Gérard Perse's innovative winemaking approach has made Château Pavie one of the most controversial wines in Bordeaux. Numerous wine lovers are dazzled by Pavie's flamboyant side. However, some connoisseurs find it overwhelms the terroir's intrinsic characteristics. In fact, this can be seen as a quarrel between proponents of "old" and "new" style Bordeaux. Be this as it may, one must recognize the fact that Pavie 2000 and 2005 are quite simply extraordinary. While many people find the atypical 2003 Pavie somewhat surprising, the more classic 2001 and 2004 are also very lovely wines.

Prior to 1998, when the Valette family were owners, they also produced some tremendously successful wines, especially 1990 and 1989 Château Pavie. The 1995 and 1985 Pavie (presently ready to drink) are also noteworthy.

Much sought after by wine lovers around the world, Pavie is an expensive wine, costing as much as the topmost wines in the appellation.

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Pavie