2014 Pavie Decesse

The 2014 Pavie-Decesse is laced with inky blue/purplish fruit, crème de cassis, lavender, violet and cloves that all flesh out in the glass. This is one of the most unctuous, powerful 2014s readers will come across. There is plenty of underpinning of structure to balance things out, but still, my impression is that Pavie-Decesse could be a materially better wine with less pushed extraction and less oak influence overall. There is more personality here than at Pavie, but it needs a different approach to fully come through.

18 hl/ha. 90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc. Seems like a wine that has been concentrated. But there is good compensating acidity here as well as the massive ripeness. Marked acidity on the end but vivacity rather than soupiness. Sinewy and taken to the limit. Drying finish. Should last a long time – in fact it demands time in bottle. (JR)

The 2014 Pavie-Decesse is a wine of aristocratic breeding. Here, the chalky soils give the wine a sense of energy and tension, with super-expressive aromatics, finely-sculpted fruit and exceptional finesse. The deceptively mid-weight finish is incredibly nuanced. All the elements are very much in balance here. The 2012 is effortless, gracious and striking in every way. The blend is 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. The 2014 spent 34 days on the skins, followed by malolactic fermentation in barrel. New oak is 80%.