2004 Chateau Pavie Saint Emilion

Good deep fresh ruby. Vibrant, complex aromas of blackberry, violet, licorice, espresso and minerals. Concentrated, spicy and fresh, with lovely clarity and lift to its penetrating dark fruit and mineral flavors. Densely packed and downright palate-staining for 2004 without any impression of heaviness. This has plenty of fat for the year and finishes impressively dense, with ripe, building tannins. Owner Gerard Perse notes that Pavie has the benefit of three different soil types, while Pavie-Decesse is a single block of old vines on calcaire Thus Pavie is always more complex, he adds, and the portion of younger vines at Pavie brings a fruity quality that's sometimes missing in Pavie-Decesse.