With Hart, Tiara, Bradien et al. Wine was courtesy of the Tiara and Bradien’s generosity.

It’s ironic that I posted my thoughts about St Emilions on Thursday, and then BOOM. We get a Pavie on Friday. To be clear, a wine like this is substantially out of my budget, and it’s amongst those that I basically only ever get to try solely due to the generosity of friends.

So remember how I said I’ve enjoyed St Emilion wines generally, but they raaaarely ever impressed? This is that 0.1% that does. Damn.

AFAIK, the wine had been decanting in a wide based decanter for maybe 1-1.5 hours at the min. Into the glass, it was a DARK garnet. Couldn’t rly see through it the core, and it held its inkiness almost to the rim. Small meniscus at the rim.
As I brought the wine to my nose, it was immediately obvious, and reminded me of the various Montrose I’ve tried: prior to last night, Montroses was the only wine with such density in aroma you could smell it in the room the moment it’s opened, and almost felt like it was just pushing into your nose as you raised the glass to drink it. The Pavie isn’t quite as forceful as that, but this was a wine with aromas just bursting out of the glass even from a distance.

In the nose: it was a leathery upfront, with INTENSE blueberries and blackberries. A touch of almost like, smokiness but not quite. Maybe like carbon / pencil led. What a remarkably complex nose.

On the palate: mid acidity, and tannins that were silky as you drank it, but stayed resolved on the tongue after swallowing. Long, loooong juicy finish.

The absolutely most impressive part about the wine, was how the aromas just lingered and lingered and lingered in your palate and nose, long after swallowing. It was truly incredible.

This was a dark, brooding, complex gem of a wine. Fuuuuuuccckkkk. Would’ve liked a bit more elevated acidity, but that’s just personal preference