2018 Chateau Pavie Macquin, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru, Bottle (750ml)

JA98 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.

JD97+ One of my favorite wines, the 2018 Château Pavie Macquin is 78% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon that comes from a cooler terroir above Pavie. This Cuvée is always hard to judge in its youth, since it's often closed and reserved, but it builds beautifully with bottle age and offers an incredibly classic, complex, powerful, and elegant profile at maturity. Brought up in 70% new French oak, the 2018 reveals a dense purple hue as well as classic Saint-Emilion notes of cassis, black cherries, white truffle, chalky minerality, violets, and tobacco. Playing in the medium to full-bodied end of the spectrum, it has polished tannins, a wonderfully pure, elegant texture, and the balance and class to benefit from a decade of bottle age and keep for three decades or more.