2010 Chateau Pavie-Macquin Saint Emilion

Vinous Media (VM)

Deep violet-ruby. Knockout bomb of a nose offers perfumed scents of ripe black cherry and cassis complicated by cinnamon, incense and bay leaf. Decadently sweet and opulent, with seamless flavors of superripe black cherry, coffee and underbrush. This impressive wine finishes very long, with noble, peppery tannins that will require at least mid-term aging to resolve fully. There's a trace of warmth at the back, but I would never have guessed that this wine clocks in at 15%. Very well done.

Wine Spectactor (WS)

This is flashy, with overt blueberry, fig and boysenberry aromas and flavors, but plenty of polish and poise too, thanks to alluring incense and licorice notes. There's lots of range and grip. Really beautiful.

Wine Advocate (WA)

This is always an extremely masculine, dense, burly wine, and the 2010, which tips the scales at 14.5% alcohol (just slightly under that of the 2009), has a final blend of 80% Merlot and the rest virtually all Cabernet Franc, with just 1% Cabernet Sauvignon. Loads of crushed rock and chalkiness, along with licorice, black truffle, smoked game and black fruits dominate the aromatics and flavor. Backward, formidably endowed, full-bodied and almost atypically massive and huge, with gargantuan extraction, this is a wine for patient connoisseurs to forget about for close to a decade. Anticipated maturity: 2022-2040+.