1997 Jean-Marc et Hugues Pavelot, Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Les Dominode
Impressively deep coloured wine. Whilst not particularly forward, the aromas offer depth and warm blood – hardly any of those distracting herbal tones that are common with 97s, though it does grow with open-time. Good concentration. The acidity winds up the intensity into the mid-palate where the flavours have more than a hint of bitter-chocolate. What Meadows calls ‘inner-mouth-perfume’ does betray a little herbaceousness, but this remains quite a slick package – smoothly textured with a fine level of acidity. Excellent balance; now this wine is beginning to forget about fruit and look to more tertiary flavours, while still with adequate sweetness to buffer the rest, it’s clearly less tasty than 3-4 years ago – it’s better after 2 hours than to start with though! Whilst it’s a reasonably strong 97, I wouldn’t be tempted to open another in the near future…
Rebuy – Maybe