2023 Chateau Pavie Macquin - St. Emilion (750ml)

Here's a CMS-ready blurb for the 2023 Château Pavie Macquin:

2023 Château Pavie Macquin — Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru Classé B

Named in honor of Albert Macquin — the pioneering specialist who grafted American rootstock onto European vines and helped save Bordeaux from the phylloxera devastation — Château Pavie Macquin's 15 hectares sit on the Côte Pavie, neighboring Château Pavie, Pavie-Decesse, and Troplong Mondot. Since Nicolas Thienpont joined as director in 1994, the estate has been farmed entirely organically, and the quality of the grand vin has skyrocketed. The 2023 vintage marks the 30th year of collaboration between the Thienpont-Derenoncourt team and the Corre-Macquin family. 

The 2023 blends 82% Merlot, 17% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Cabernet Sauvignon, harvested September 18 through October 3. Whole berries are gravity-fed into concrete vats for parcel-by-parcel vinification. The newer plantings from 2013–2016 have begun to mature, and the aging program is gentler this vintage, with close to half the number of punch-downs, allowing the wine to feel more relaxed on the palate. 

Deep garnet-purple in the glass, the 2023 Pavie Macquin bursts with lilacs, iris, star anise, sandalwood, and Sichuan pepper over a core of redcurrant jelly, wild blueberries, and black raspberries, with earthy suggestions of moss-covered bark and fallen leaves. The medium to full-bodied palate shimmers with energetic red and black berry layers, firm fine-grained tannins, and electric tension, finishing very long with chalky and red berry sparks.