Arômes de Pavie 2017

A sophisticated and precise Saint-Emilion Seconde Wine

The estate

An estate with an ancient origin, the vines have been cultivated on the slopes, where Château Pavie currently sits, since the 4th century. Owned by Chantal and Gérard Perse since March 1998, Château Pavie, a Premier Grand Cru Classé "A", has one of the most beautiful vineyards in Saint-Émilion.

Château Pavie’s Saint-Emilion wines are renowned for their structure and elegance and are the fruit of limited harvests, the yields are best suited to the terroir: 31hl/ha.

In 2005, Arômes de Pavie became the label of Château Pavie’s seconde wine, succeeding that of Château Tour Simard.

The vineyard

Arômes de Pavie is produced from vines that are mostly less than 10 years old and from lots that do not fit into the estate’s First Wine. Located on the south-east side of the Saint-Emilion hill, the 29-hectare vineyard, whose young vines are used in Arômes de Pavie, rest on three levels of the hill. The "plateau" (85 metres above sea level) is composed of clay-limestone soil and the "middle of the hill" (55 metres above sea level) is composed of brown clay-limestone soil with a fine texture. The "bottom of the hill" is composed of sandy/sandy-clay soils with iron oxide, between 60 and 80 cm below ground, and sandy-gravel soils.

Particular attention is paid to the vineyard such as pruning based on the vine’s age, green harvesting and leaf stripping.

The wine

Arômes de Pavie 2017 is made from the estate’s youngest vines but also from an 11-hectare vineyard, purchase that same year, on the limestone plateau of Saint-Émilion. The subtle alchemy between these plot-based terroirs lead to a seductive vintage that embodies precision, elegance and an intense fruity expression.

The vintage

Following the forst in spring, this promising vintage turned out to be very heterogeneous. The estate’s vineyards situated on the hill and on the limestone plateau were not affected by the frost and were barely affected by the mildew pressure. Planted on clay-limestone soils, the Merlot vines benefited from a slow and gradual ageing process. The very mild conditions from September 20th onwards enabled the Cabernet grapes to reach optimum ripeness. Harvested under good conditions, the grapes gave birth to a vintage whose freshness and structure are combined with a beautiful minerality stemming from the limstone terroirs.

The vinification and ageing

Vinification is adapted to the harvest’s full potential. A temperature-controlled wooden vat houses the harvest for a 28-day vatting period. Malolactic fermentation in barrels as well as ageing for 18 to 24 months. The breakdown is 50% new barrels and 50% first-fill barrels.

The blend

Merlot (65%)

Cabernet franc (18%)

Cabernet Sauvignon (17%)