2011 Chateau Pavie Saint Emilion Premier Grand Cru Classe A

Producer Notes

Chateau Pavie is a recent promotion to Premier Grand Cru Classe A status (in 2012) but a controversial wine. The style of the wine, since Gerald Perse acquisition of Pavie in 1998, has been described by Clive Coates as ‘over-extracted’ and by Jancis Robinson as having ‘completely unappetising overripe aromas’. On the other hand, Robert Parker is a big fan. This is probably the marker wine for the divide between ‘Parkerised’ wines and traditional claret and the only way to decide which side of this debate one is one is to try it. As you might suspect, we at Nemo tend towards the European side of the debate but believe that there are situations for each type of wine. The blend is 60% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and there is a second wine called Arômes de Pavie.