Château Pavie

The first mention of a château on this site dates from 1234 but very little is known about its early history or ownership during the next two centuries. The modern winemaking estate was created by Ferdinand Bouffard in the 1900s when he bought land in Saint-Estephe for his son, Eugene Bouffard. Ferdinand was a wine merchant and wanted to create wines under the label Pavie. He chose this name because of all the peach orchards that used to stand on this very spot which gave it its original name (Pavie is French for Peaches). The original estate was hard hit by phylloxera and had to be replanted. Ferdinand and Eugene chose a vineyard on the upper part of Pavie hill which they planted with grapes from Bordeaux’s best-known grape varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. At the end of the first World War, the estate was sold to Albert Porte, then to Alexandre Valette and finally to Gérard Perse in 1998 who used it as a family home and his own private vineyard. Perse oversaw the complete revitalisation of the Chateau and the vineyard and Pavie was once again producing world-class wines through the addition of a new temperature-controlled wooden fermentation vat and a new irrigation system. Wine consultant Michel Rolland was brought in to advise and improve the quality of Pavie’s wines and his use of malolactic fermentation in the wine is what has enhanced Chateau Pavie uniquely concentrated and intense wines. The winery currently produces around 400,000 bottles per year from about 30 hectares (74 acres) of vineyards across roughly 30 parcels all classified as Saint-Émilion Grand Cru or Premier grand cru classé B. The wine produced by Chateau Pavie can best be described as intense, dark and rich with intense fruit flavours and tasting notes of blackberry, mocha and cassis. The grape varieties grown at Chateau Pavie are predominantly Merlot (around 85%) with the remainder Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. In the Saint-Émilion wine classification of 2012 Chateau Pavie was one of a select few estates to be listed as Premier Grand Cru Classé A – a status that it still holds today.