CHÂTEAU PAVIE MACQUIN

84% Merlot, 16% Cabernet. Wonderful lifted fragrance this year. Lots of energy and minerality. Lovely texture and tannins with the tension ever present. Sweet fruit but not excessive. Builds on the finish. Still powerful but a refined power this year. Saline finish. Drinking range: 2025 - 2040 Rating: 95 James Lawther MW, decanter.com (Apr 2016)

The purity of fruit and focus in this wine is so impressive. Full body, powerful and presistent. It goes on for minutes here. Rating: 96-97 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2016)

The 2015 Pavie-Macquin is a blend of 84% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon picked between 29 September and 17 October at 40 hl/ha. It has an almost decadent bouquet, perhaps more lascivious than the 2015 Larcis-Ducasse tasted alongside (as part of Nicolas Thienpont's "stable"), with fig-tinged red cherry and blackberry fruit, powerful but perhaps needing to muster a little more finesse? The palate is medium-bodied with a sweet core of citrus-fresh fruit. There is more nuance and precision here at the moment, fleshy and sensual with blood orange and cassis layered over the exuberant finish. It should be a delicious Saint Emilion this year, although I feel that the Larcis-Ducasse will have the sophistication and more longevity. Drinking range: 2020 - 2040 Rating: 91-93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)

The 2015 Pavie Macquin is another tremendous wine from Nicolas Thienpont and his team. Inky, rich and voluptuous the 2015 is endowed with remarkable depth and plenty of underlying energy to back it all up. The flavors are dark, bold and incisive, as are the tannins. The 2015 is going to require quite a bit of time to come together, but it is impressive, that much is obvious. Pavie Macquin is 84% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon picked between September 29 and October 17 and aged in 60% new oak. Rating: 93-96 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)

The third premier grand cru classé wine managed by Nicolas Thienpont, who has a considerable and admirable presence here. This barrel sample has a blend of 84% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Merlot was picked between September 29th and October 16th, the Cabernet Franc October 7th, 16th and 17th, the Cabernet Sauvignon October 17th. The yield was 40 l/ha. This has a very dark, concentrated nose of crushed black-cherry and black-plum fruit, with fresh perfumed, pencil-drawn edges. The palate is very concentrated, pure, very defined and straight though, the pretty and rather tense fruit character wrapped up in oak here. There is a rather elegant potential underneath it, although no shortage of grip. An impressive barrel sample overall, dark, perfumed, defined, but with lovely freshness and depth as well. This is undoubtedly a great wine, and one of the best vintages of Pavie-Macquin I recall tasting for some time. What an addition to the cellar this would be. Rating: 18-19/20 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2016)

A pure style, with a bright cassis aroma and a core of plum and bitter cherry notes, allied to a lightly chalky spine. Long and refined, showing lovely cut and precision. Rating: 94—97 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2016)