The 2021 Château Pavie Macquin is a beautiful wine in the vintage, bringing rock-solid concentration and depth as well as its hallmark purity and elegance. Cassis, blueberries, scorched earth, and violet notes define the aromatics, and it’s medium-bodied, has terrific mid-palate depth, fine tannins, and outstanding length. I love its purity, and it has classic Pavie Macquin character. This beauty will benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and evolve gracefully over the following 15+ years. It's clearly a success in this vintage. The blend is 79% Merlot, 19% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, representing 80% of the total production, with roughly 4,600 cases produced.

The 2021 Pavie Macquin is a rich, heady wine, as it typically is. Dark red fruit, leather, smoke, licorice, mocha and espresso build nicely in the glass. The tannins are a bit firmer than they usually are, but there's plenty of creaminess and texture lurking beneath. The 2021 needs time to fully come together. In some tastings it was a bit austere, while in other moments, the trademark Pavie-Macquin sensuality was more in evidence. Tasted three times.

The 2021 Pavie Macquin offers up aromas of cherries, blackberries and raspberries mingled with mint, spices and bay leaf. Medium to full-bodied, with a deep core of fruit framed by chalky tannins that assert themselves on the comparatively structured, mineral finish, it's a strong effort.