Chateau Pavie Macquin 2010

Description

RECENTLY At the end of 1994, Nicolas Thienpont became the manager of the estate. Stephane Derenoncourt is already working here. He still is the consultant. The Chateau Pavie Macquin was promoted First Growth Classified in the 2006 Classification of Saint-Emilion wines.HISTORY Chateau Pavie Macquin owes its name to the grand-father of the current owners Albert Macquin 1852-1911, who used plant grafting as a way to save the Saint-Emilion vineyard, destroyed by phylloxera. The vineyard of Pavie Macquin, a family property of fifteen hectares, is located on the top of the Saint-Emilion plateau. The clay and limestone soil, on a chalk/an asteriated limestone bedrock, allows a natural draining and an exceptionally continuous water supply. Strong clays result in fleshy, generous and powerful wines. The winemaker has to tame the natural power of the terroir in order to make this exceptional graceful wine.VITICULTURE Surface area 15 ha of which 14 ha are in production.Planting density 6600 pieds/ha Terroirs clay-chalk plateau with asteriated limestone subsoil. Average age of the vineyard35 years-old. Vineyard practices Combination of traditional ways labours and methods of spontaneous natural sodding. Continuous programme for the renewal of the vineyard pulling-out, replanting, complantation of massal selection with higher density. Biological control and herbal treatment of the vineyard. Numerous manual intervention disbudding, leaf removal, thinning… Complete trellising renewal in order to increase leaf surfaces. Draining of all estate plots.2012 VINTAGE Harvest dates Merlots from the 13th to the 18th of October, Cabernets from the 17th to the 18th of October. Production/Yield around 50000 bottles 30 hl/ha85% of great wine Blend in the 2011 vintage85% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 1% Cabernet SauvignonVINIFICATION, AGEING Ageing time 16 to 20 months in barrels.Barrels 60% new, 40% of only one wine. Distinctive features Harvest reception by gravity entirely manual4 successive sorting tables, de-stemming but no crushing. Gravity vatting of whole berries and seperate vinification in concrete tanks. Gentle extraction by punching of the cap, at the core of the fermentation. Malolactic fermentation in barrels. Reductant ageing on fine lees First racking after 6 to 10 months of ageing before summer, second one a year later, before the bottling. Fining and filtering only if necessary. – Chateau Pavie Macquin*92-95/100 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate *93-96/100 J.M., Wine Spectator