Chateau Pavie-Macquin
Chateau Pavie Macquin, took its name from Albert Macquin. The name of Macquin is famous today for more than being attached to a St. Emilion chateau. Albert Macquin was a true pioneer. He deserves much of the credit for solving the phylloxera epidemic. It was his idea to graft vines needed onto rootstocks. This helped save not only St. Emilion, but much of Bordeaux and the vineyards of Europe from the devastation being caused by the by nonstop phylloxera attack.
The current owners of Pavie Macquin are Benoit Corre and Bruno Corre and Marie-Jacques Charpentier. They own Pavie Macquin, along with their children.
Prior to 1998, the estate was not producing wines at the level of its terroir. To know this, all you have to do is taste the wines of Pavie Macquin from before 1998 and compare them with the wines they started making in 1998, up until today to understand how far they have come at Pavie Macquin.
I mentioned 1998, because that is the date of the rebirth of Pavie Macquin for their wine. But the start of everything coming together began several years earlier, in 1990 to be exact. That was the year the young, Stephane Derenoncourt joined the team at Pavie Macquin.
A few years later, in 1994, Nicolas Thienpont was the next member to join the team at Pavie Macquin. It took a few years after that, but starting with the 1998 vintage, things began rapidly turning around for the wines of this St. Emilion chateau. As of today, 2005 Pavie Macquin remains the finest vintage they have produced yet.
This 15 hectare St. Emilion vineyard of Pavie Macquin is planted to 80% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards of Chateau Pavie Macquin are located next to the hill of Mondot at an altitude of between 75 and 100 meters at its highest point.
If you’re standing in the Right Bank vineyards of Pavie Macquin, you get a great view of their well known neighbors. Troplong Mondot is to the west, Pavie is south, Trotte vielle is due north and Pavie Decesse is right in front.
Pavie Macquin has a complex terroir which features 9 different types of soil, most of it is clay and limestone soil. You can simplify matters by looking at their northern parcels as being in a slightly cooler, limestone are, and in the south, you find a warmer terroir.
The vineyards of Chateau Pavie Macquin are planted at a vine density of 6,600 vines per hectare. However, newer plantings are being done at a very high density for the Right Bank at 8,888 vines per hectare. At Pavie Macquin they have old vines, many are on average, close to 40 years of age. Their oldest vines date back more than 60 years.
At Chateau Pavie Macquin, the vineyard is managed using 100% organic techniques. But they choose not to be certified organic, allowing them to make a wider variety of choices. They are also biodiverse, meaning they are HVE certified. The policy of replanting at Chateau Pavie Macquin is that individual vines are replaced on a vine by vine basis.
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