2006 Pavie Decesse

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+.

Very dark and glowing. Blackish crimson. Rich and curranty. Dried fruit smells but not too dried on the palate. Tangy fruit. Quite mellifluous but a bit dry on the end. Some juice and quite a bit of graphite. Lots of minerals! Pavie Decesse? Some lusciousness. And a bit of complexity too, though it does dry out a little on the end. Just a bit forced on the finish, but it's set for the long run, that's for sure. (JR)

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.