Wine Advisor
Pavie Decesse 2006
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
A tiny production of 1,200 cases ensures that not much of this wine is available, but it is one of the top dozen or so St.-Emilions produced since proprietors Chantal and Gerard Perse took over the estate. Cropped at 30 hectoliters per hectare, the wine enjoyed a 32-day maceration, malolactic in barrel, and aging on its lees. The result is an impressive inky/purple-hued 2006 offering up notes of crushed rocks, black raspberry jam, cold steel, flowers, and spice, and a terrific, full-bodied mouthfeel with no heaviness. Having already absorbed much of its new oak, it is rich and pure with excellent precision, length, and aging potential. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2030.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted blind at Southwold ’06 Bordeaux tasting. This has an ethereal, lifted, supremely well defined nose with superb clarity and transparency with aromas of blackberry, Doris plum, dates, minerals, pain grille and cigar box. The palate is full-bodied with sinewy tannin that lends it a rigid backbone, building to a crescendo of dense black fruit laced with allspice. Huge grip and great length, this is a magisterial Saint Emilion. Tasted January 2010.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
My favourite of Gerard Perse’s wines. A sumptuous, quite compelling nose of super-ripe black cherries, rose petals and Morello cherry. Good definition. The palate is loaded with voluptuous sweet red-berried fruits enmeshed with firm, succulent, chewy tannins. Moderate acidity. Leads nicely towards a graceful, elegant finish. Smooth and seductive, this is irresistible. Tasted April 2007.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Planted in pure limestone above Gerard Perse’s other famous vineyard/terroir, Chateau Pavie, this 10-acre site’s vines average 47 years of age. Fashioned from remarkably low yields, this blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc is a powerful, dense, tannic wine that will require considerable time to round into shape. It exhibits a dense purple color along with sweet aromas of mulberries, black currants, minerals, cold steel, graphite, and background spice. Full-bodied, highly-extracted, dense, and made in an unfashionably tannic, broodingly backward style, this is a wine for the ages. It requires 8-10 years of cellaring, and should last for 25-30+.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright, saturated ruby. Perfumed nose combines kirsch, blackberry, licorice and violet with a pungent rocky minerality. Supple and silky on entry, then densely packed and powerful in the middle, with superb calcaire energy. For all its sweetness and intensity, this shows a brooding medicinal character and great solidity, like sucking a mouthful of rocks. A tightly coiled spring gives this wine brilliant verve and definition. The tannins saturate the entire mouth without coming off as hard or dry on the very long, rising finish. I'd forget about this beauty for a decade.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Good full ruby-red. Black cherry, minerals, licorice and an element of oaky torrefaction on the nose. Suave and firmly built, with complex, soil-driven flavors of dark fruits and minerals. Finishes long and aromatic, with tooth-coating tannins and more apparent structure than the young 2007. This is also much easier to taste today. Perse notes that this wine is aging in 70% new oak in both '06 and '07, whereas in 2005 it was aged in all new barrels and received a longer elevage His intention to bottle the '06 and '07 earlier is a function of the density of those vintages, rather than a general change in philosophy, he added.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright medium ruby. Deep, expressive aromas of kirsch, blackberry, licorice and sweet oak. Broad, supple and quite ripe but not overly sweet. Large-scaled but light on its feet, with lively medicinal black fruit and mineral flavors nicely framed by dusty, ripe tannins that reach the front teeth. This is impressively long for a 2006.
About the Producer
Chateau Pavie Decesse is located in the Saint-Emilion appellation on the right bank of Bordeaux, France, and is one of the Grand Cru Classe of Saint-Emilion. Château Pavie Decesse has strong ties to Premier Grand Cru Classe A, which was originally owned by Château Pavie. In 1885, Ferdinand Bouffard, the owner of Chateau Pavie, decided to reorganise the vineyards and separated a plot of land called "Pigasse", thus giving birth to Château Pavie de Caisse. The estate was then passed on to Mr Marzelle. In 1970, when he died, his wife entrusted the estate to the Valette family, then owners of Château Lafite, who took over the estate in 1990. In 1997, Gerard Perse bought the estate, and the following year, he took it under his wing. Since becoming part of the Perse family, Château de Berfet de Sais has enjoyed the same treatment as Château de Berfet and the quality of its wines has continued to improve. The 3.65 hectares of vineyards of Château Pape de Cais are located on the limestone plateau of Saint-Emilion, next to the vineyards of Château Pape, and have similar terroirs but with different characteristics. The soil is mainly made up of limestone and clay soils and is planted with 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, with an average vine age of 43 years. The limestone gives the wines their freshness, floral aromas and minerality, while the clay provides structure to the finished wines. In the winemaking, Château de Pays follows the modern winemaking philosophy of the Pace family, sharing the same winemaking team as Château Pays. The grapes are harvested by hand after they have ripened and undergo a rigorous manual selection process before moving on to the next stage of the process. Grapes from different plots are fermented separately in three temperature-controlled vats to allow for fine-tuning during the final blend. The maceration lasts three weeks before the wine is transferred to oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. After fermentation, the wine is matured in 80% new French oak barrels for 18-24 months, during which time it is racked every three months. This is followed by blending and bottling. In order to maintain the pure flavour of the wines, no clarification or filtration is carried out on the red wines of Château de Pape de Cais before bottling. Thanks to the excellent terroir, the wines of Château de Pape de Sais are rich and complex, full-bodied, with a fine tannic structure and excellent ageing potential. The red wines of Chateau Pavie Decesse, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe, France, are not only very popular with consumers, but have also been highly praised by prestigious wine critics and magazines.
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