Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Amazing depth and substance: the vintage has been surpassed. pavie is a very deep, intense, and masculine wine, with hints of pencil lead and black fruit; exciting depth, underscored by a dense and silky body, and tight but ultra-refined tannins. Very stylish. 19

Michael Schuster: the 2011 wines at Chateau Pavie left me completely nonplussed, because the new-oak astringency dominated everything, in a way I didn’t notice anywhere else. These are always a fairly tough prospect when presented en primeur, but particularly so this year, when it was all but impossible to see beyond the swingeingly dry carapace of wood tannin—at least, it was for me. the sweetly ripe nose, a tenacity of flavor on the mid-palate, and a notable persistence of aftertaste point to the underlying quality of the Pavie fruit, but whether this will ever harmonize, I couldn’t say on the basis of this tasting. One thing one can say is that the range is likely to require considerable patience. 2025+. NS