2018 Château Pavie-Macquin

One of the standouts of the vintage, with blackcurrant fruits that are layered through with bitter black chocolate, espresso, smoked earth and gourmet bioche notes. There is a generosity here that makes it all the more impressive when it switches out of the exuberance into a tighter squeeze of oyster-shell minerality and a tight core of tannins that pulse with electricity. Once again you are reminded of the architecture of Pavie-Macquin, and the ability of clay-limestone to deliver both power and restraint, and to allow for space and breathing room between the tannins. Part of the oustanding vintages series within this vertical. 60% new oak, 47hl/ha yields.

One of the steepest driveways inSt Emilion immediately gives you a sense of how this vineyard is perched on the edge of the limestone plateau, with vines both on the plateau and clinging to the steep slopes where there is a slightly thicker layer of clay over the bedrock. Both things combine to give a wine with a pleasingly slate-rough tingle alongside burstingly ripe damson and blackberries fruits, sun-sweetened and generous. Bitter chocolate shavings run throughout the palate, showing the precision of the winemaking from the Nicolas Thienpont team. I've been lucky enough to taste this wine several times even in the short three years since its arrival, and I'm looking forward to following it for many years to come. An exceptional vintage at Pavie Macquin. 47hl/ha yield

The 2018 Pavie Macquin was impressive out of barrel. It has retained its opulent bouquet, perhaps becoming even more luxuriant and plush, offering copious black cherries, cassis and violet aromas and hints of vanilla pod and iodine in the background. The palate is where this really impresses, because its opulence is effortlessly counterbalanced by a bead of acidity that imparts freshness and tension. This is a multilayered Pavie-Macquin endowed with tremendous length on the aftertaste. Even after 60 seconds I can still feel this Saint-Émilion lapping upon my senses. Superb.