Always one of the "Second Wines of the Vintage," the 2019 Château Pavie Aromes De Pavie is based on 65% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon. This deep purple-hued beauty boasts a great nose of cassis, graphite, white flower, tobacco leaf, and damp earth. It shows lots of Sauvignon aromatics with its lively, floral character yet is rocking Merlot on the palate, where it's medium to full-bodied, round, and seamless. It's a great Second Wine that undeniably shows some mini-Pavie character.

(WA 92-94 points) The 2019 Arômes de Pavie is a blend of 65% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc and 17% Cabernet Sauvignon, harvested from the 3rd of October to the 10th of October. The yields this year were 35 hectoliters per hectare, and the alcohol came in at 14.67%, while the pH was 3.46 (remarkably low!). Deep garnet-purple colored, it comes charging out of the glass with energetic notes of freshly crushed blackberries, boysenberries and red and black plums with fragrant touches of garrigue, violets, star anise and pencil shavings. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is completely coated with black, blue and red fruits, featuring velvety tannins and an invigorating undercurrent of freshness, finishing long and perfumed. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown

From a separate parcel of the Pavie vineyard, the wine is richly textured, firm with tannins. To contrast neatly, it also has a supple, velvet character with juicy black fruits and an open aftertaste. Drink from 2025. Roger Voss

Perfumed dark berries on the nose, smells ripe and round - super expressive. Mouthcoating tannins but not massively heavy with such a lovely juicy and succulent quality - nicely rounded but with elegance too. Freshness and tension throughout. Good core of dark fruit - blackcurrants and black cherries with licks of wet stone, salinity and minerality alongside some sweet black liquorice touches at the end. Such confidence - plush, ripe, round, this is a big showy wine but with lots of well expressed sides where little touches of freshness, mint, wet stone and spice all come through harmoniously. A blend of 65% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc and 17% Cabernet Sauvignon. 18 months ageing, 50% new oak, 50% one year old barrels. Drinking Window 2024 - 2036

Cigar box, powerful with less space for air between the tannins than I found in the Pavie Decesse. This is exuberant, with creamy black cherry fruits, a ton of black pepper spice and olive tapenade, solid and full of punch. 50% new oak, then 1/3 inox, 2/3 oak.

Medium-bodied, finesse-driven wine that comes out of the blocks with a strong floral sensation before quickly moving to its core of red cherries, tobacco leaf, herbs, and fennel. Soft in texture, with a bright, red plum and cherry finish. Drink from 2023-2032.

The 2019 Arômes de Pavie retains the attractiveness that I found out of barrel, offering blackberry and bilberry scents that are quite low-key for this château. The palate is well balanced with lightly spiced red fruit, salted licorice and a slightly grainier finish than the silky one I encountered before. This is a thoroughly decent Deuxième Vin and it should give a decade of drinking pleasure. -- Neal Martin