The second wine of Château Pavie, the 2020 Aromes De Pavie certainly has some Grand Vin character in its red and black fruits, tobacco, leafy herbs, and chocolate-driven aromas and flavors. Full-bodied and concentrated, with fine tannins and some obvious minerality on the finish, it's up with the finest second wines in the vintage. It will keep for two decades.

With a distinctive floral edge, the wine quickly shifts to its nuances of espresso, licorice, crushed rocks, plums and dark chocolate on the nose. The wine is poised between its richness, freshness and vibrant layers of plums, cherries and cocoa with its edge of sea salt. What really makes this work is the new blend of 50% Cabernet Franc and 50% Merlot, both harvested from specific parcels. Aromes de Pavie is no longer the second wine of Pavie, it is a unique wine of its own creation. Drink from 2024-2040.

Blackcurrant and bramble fruit, perfumed, ripeness and richness, medicinal herbs and blue fruits. Nicely detailed. Punchy and bright, the tannins are clean and a touch tight but this is generous and appealing. Feels serious and it does have that signature, lean, austere and tightly spiced backbone. Sweet, juicy, tight right now, but confident and stylish, good complexity and lovely licks of terroir.

(91-93 points) Composed of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, the 2020 Arômes de Pavie has an alcohol of 14.78% and a pH of 3.57. It is aging in French oak barriques, 70% new. Deep purple-black in color, it needs a little swirling to unleash its exuberant scents of stewed black plums, black cherry compote and boysenberries, plus hints of tar, sautéed herbs and chargrill. The full-bodied palate packs in the black fruit layers, framed by soft tannins and tons of freshness, finishing long and earthy.

VN 91-93 points) The 2020 Arômes de Pavie represents a major step up in quality vis-à-vis previous vintages. It is a deep, statuesque wine endowed with tremendous power, richness and resonance. Plum, mocha, licorice, espresso and spice all flesh out in the glass. I can't wait to taste this in bottle. This is the first year in which the blend is equal parts Merlot and Cabernet Franc, both increasingly from plots dedicated to the Arômes, a departure from the past, when this wine was a selection of younger-vine fruit and lots that did not make it into the Grand Vin. -- Antonio Galloni