Technical director Laurent Lusseau was the first to work alongside Gérard Perse when he arrived in Saint-Émilion in 1993. Through patience and perseverance, he breathed new life into the Château Pavie vineyard.

He began by conducting a meticulous, detailed soil analysis to define 21 technical plots, according to year of plantation and optimal choice of grape variety. New vines were also planted over several hectares in certain terroirs.

Laurent Lusseau and vineyard manager Manuel Murillo didn’t hesitate to think outside the box. Attentive to climate change, they decided with Gérard Perse, as early as the beginning of the 2000s, to replace Merlot with Cabernet Sauvignon in several plots on the Côte Pavie. With this due south exposure, this later-ripening grape variety has brought a precious freshness to the wine’s profile.

Another pillar underpinning this remarkable wine-growing adventure is oenologist Jean-Baptiste Pion. When he first crossed paths with Gérard Perse in 1998, this final-year oenology student had little idea that he would one day be helping to write a decisive chapter in the history of Château Pavie’s wines. At first an intern, he was later appointed cellarmaster, then deputy technical director of the estate.

Between 1998 and 2000, 21 temperature-controlled wooden vats were installed in the vat room to accommodate each technical plot separately. A 600 m² cutting-edge and perfectly insulated barrel cellar was also built. In 2013, both spaces were integrated into a majestic 8,500 m² complex designed by the renowned architect Alberto Pinto.

The thorough, in-depth work carried out by Gérard Perse and his team soon paid off. The outstanding quality of the wines produced confirms the estate’s remarkable consistency year after year. 2000, 2005, and 2010 remain vintages etched into memories and palates alike.

A permanent team of 15 people devote their time to enhancing this 42-hectare garden of Eden. Each plot is tended by the same hands throughout the year, enabling individualised care of each vine according to its needs.

From the pruning on, nothing is left to chance. Later in the vine cycle, shoot-thinning, de-leafing and green harvesting ensure perfect ripeness of the berries, such a key factor in the ultimate quality of Saint-Émilion wines. The estate’s low yields, averaging 30 hectolitres per hectare, reflect these exacting choices. The same attention to detail guides the harvesting philosophy. The grapes are picked entirely by hand and conveyed to the vat room (just a few metres from the vines) in small crates weighing no more than 10 kilos, to ensure that the fruit arrives in perfect condition. Meticulous bunch selection then takes place on a double sorting table, before laser optical sorting of the berries completes this painstaking work. The grapes are finally transferred to the vats by gravity in order to preserve the rich aromatics contained in each berry.

Delicacy and patience guide each step in the vat room. Fermentation temperatures are kept relatively low, and pumping-over is carried out at a very moderate pace. The high quality and ripeness of the crop allow for long macerations, during which aromatic complexity is slowly developed through gentle evolution.

After approximately one week of cold pre-fermentation maceration and 8 to 10 days of alcoholic fermentation, three weeks or more of post-fermentation maceration follow. The wine is then run off into barrels to undergo its malolactic fermentation.

With each vintage, the estate’s team takes care to review and refine its methods—this is the condition for tailor-made vinifications, adapted precisely to the potential of the harvest.