Scores
91
Vinous
The 2025 Arômes de Pavie is gorgeous. A blend of 50% Merlot, 50% Cabernet Franc, Arômes offers a very good representation of the Grand Vin, on a smaller scale. Juicy dark red/purplish fruit, blood orange, menthol, licorice, new leather and dried herbs open first. There's quite a bit of tannin that needs to soften with élevage. Yields were just 18 hectoliters per hectare, perhaps too low, as berries were tiny and thick-skinned. That's something of a challenge for a wine meant to be enjoyed young, where aging is not on most consumers' minds. On the other hand, I have tasted older vintages of Arômes that prove it can age beautifully.
95
James Suckling
This shows density and beauty in the integration of tannins and fruit. Medium-bodied with attractive blue fruit and a dark, earthy finish. Lightly salty. 50% merlot and 50% cabernet franc.
93
Decanter
Clean and clear aromatics, full of ripe black fruit with oak touches - bitter black chocolate, Smells fully ripe, almost heady with lots of black bramble fruit. Not sunny but intense aromatics for sure. Clean and crystalline, well integrated fine tannins with bright acidity and a really crisp mineral edge that leaves a chalky, flinty aspect on the finish. Fruit is cool and blue toned with crunch and a lovely weight. Still a little tense and compact but this will be nice, albeit on the slightly bigger, more heftier side for the vintage. Has a juicy core which I like but the structure is definitely at the fore right now. Ageing 50% new barrels, 50% one and two wine barrels. A yield of 18hl/ha. 3.50pH.