On Saint-Émilion’s elevated limestone plateau, Château Pavie Macquin combines the natural power of Merlot and clay with an increasingly precise, freshness-led approach to viticulture and winemaking. A Premier Grand Cru Classé with deep historical roots, serious ageing capacity and a market position below the appellation’s trophy names, it offers collectors a compelling combination of terroir, longevity and relative value.
Château Pavie Macquin occupies a distinctive position in contemporary Saint-Émilion. It is a Premier Grand Cru Classé with a relatively compact vineyard, long family continuity and a reputation built less on architectural spectacle than on the character of its land: a contiguous block of clay and limestone on the elevated plateau above Saint-Émilion.
That geographical coherence matters. Pavie Macquin is not an estate assembled from widely separated holdings. Its vines occupy a single high-plateau site descending from roughly 100 metres to 75 metres in elevation, close to the Mondot mound and the Fongaban fault. Troplong Mondot lies to the east, Château Pavie to the south and TrotteVieille below and to the north. Beneath the vines, asteriated limestone may sit as little as 20 centimetres from the surface in some sectors and as much as 1.5 metres below it elsewhere.
This relationship between clay, limestone and elevation provides the key to understanding the wine. The château associates its stronger clays with depth, water retention and Merlot, while warmer sectors where limestone lies closer to the surface have increasingly been directed towards Cabernet Franc.
The resulting wine can possess considerable mass, but sheer power is only part of its identity. The recurring tension is between flesh and acidity, dark fruit and mineral definition, tannic density and freshness.
The modern estate is also inseparable from the people who shaped it. Stéphane Derenoncourt began working at Pavie Macquin in 1990. Nicolas Thienpont became manager at the end of 1994, succeeding Maryse Barre, while more recent technical documentation identifies Cyrille Thienpont in the technical role. Over the following decades, the estate rose to Premier Grand Cru Classé status while gradually reducing new oak, giving Cabernet Franc greater prominence and moving towards more restrained extraction.
For collectors, that convergence of geology, classification, technical evolution and price is central to Pavie Macquin’s appeal. The wine has achieved scores placing it among the strongest Saint-Émilions of individual vintages without historically occupying the same price tier as the appellation’s most expensive labels.
From Albert Macquin to the modern estate
The estate takes its name from Albert Macquin, an agricultural engineer born in 1852 who became closely associated with the reconstruction of Saint-Émilion’s vineyards after phylloxera.
According to the château’s own history, from 1887 Macquin acquired a series of properties including Château La Serre, Peygenestou, Pavie-Chapus and Pavie-Pigasse. Together they amounted to approximately 26 hectares identified at the time as Château Pavie-Macquin. The estate does not provide a separate institutional foundation date, making 1887 the most defensible point from which to date its assembly in recognisable form.
Macquin was more than an owner. The château credits him with promoting grafted vines suited to calcareous soils, particularly plant material based on Vitis berlandieri, and with producing more than one million plants in 1887. These claims form part of the estate’s own historical account and are best treated as such rather than extrapolated into a broader history of Saint-Émilion without additional evidence.
Ownership remained with Macquin’s descendants. Official material has used both the Corre and Charpentier family names and, more recently, Famille Corre Macquin. The estate operates legally as SCEA Château Pavie Macquin, with no modern sale, takeover or merger identified in the available material.
The decisive contemporary shift came with Derenoncourt’s arrival in 1990 and Nicolas Thienpont’s appointment four years later. Their collaboration is explicitly credited by the estate with refining both viticulture and style.
Formal recognition followed. Pavie Macquin was promoted to Premier Grand Cru Classé in the 2006 Saint-Émilion classification and retained that position in 2012. It again appears among the Premiers Grands Crus Classés in the classification approved in 2022.
Older sources and merchant listings frequently use the term “Premier Grand Cru Classé B”. Under the 2022 structure, however, Pavie Macquin is most accurately described simply as a Premier Grand Cru Classé; Château Figeac and Château Pavie alone carry the separate “distinction A”.
The limestone plateau
Pavie Macquin’s vineyard is unusually easy to understand geographically because it forms one contiguous holding, even though the soils within it vary substantially.
The château describes all of them broadly as clay-limestone, but that simple label conceals important differences. Some sectors contain powerful clays with considerable water-retention capacity and slower spring warming. Elsewhere, molasse lies over asteriated limestone. Other areas contain older colluvial material with a higher proportion of silt.
The depth of the underlying limestone table also changes significantly across the property. The château interprets that limestone as an important element in hydraulic regulation and particularly associates shallower, warmer limestone sectors with Cabernet Franc.
Merlot nevertheless remains the dominant variety. It is linked most closely to the estate’s stronger clay soils, which provide breadth and depth, while Cabernet Franc increasingly acts as a structural and aromatic counterweight. A small amount of old Cabernet Sauvignon also remains.
The internal parcel structure is less publicly documented than the overall geology. No authoritative current parcel-by-parcel map or definitive inventory of present-day lieux-dits was identified in the underlying material. Historical names such as Peygenestou, Pavie-Chapus and Pavie-Pigasse therefore should not automatically be interpreted as current standalone vinification parcels.
Even the estate’s headline vineyard area needs context. Technical sheets from 2015 through 2020 generally give 15 hectares in total, with the productive area varying as vineyards were replanted. The 2022 technical sheet instead records 14.5 hectares, of which 12.88 were in production. No primary explanation was identified for the half-hectare difference.
Farming for maturity, not uniformity
Recent technical sheets consistently give an average vine age of around 35 years and a baseline planting density of 6,600 vines per hectare. New plantings are being established at greater density, although the revised figure is not stated in the available primary documentation.
Cabernet Franc has received particular attention. The estate uses in-house massal selection — propagation from selected individual vines rather than reliance solely on standard commercial clones — as part of its renewal of the variety. Its placement on warmer, limestone-dominated sectors reflects an increasingly precise interpretation of the relationship between geology and grape variety.
Vineyard work is manual and detailed. Technical documents record disbudding, leaf removal and thinning, alongside cultivated soils and natural grassing. Harvesting is by hand and organised plot by plot.
That last point is especially important. Pavie Macquin does not approach picking as a single estate-wide event. Individual plots are harvested according to maturity. In the long 2016 season, picking continued as late as 21 October. In the much earlier 2022 harvest, work ran from 14 to 27 September according to parcel and grape variety.
Yields also demonstrate how widely conditions can vary: 40 hl/ha in 2015, 46 in 2016, 34 in 2017, 47 in both 2018 and 2019, and 31 in 2020 and 2022.
The 2017 vintage is a useful reminder not to oversimplify regional narratives. Although spring frost caused severe damage across Bordeaux, Pavie Macquin states that its elevated position protected it from the principal impact. Its relatively modest yield should therefore not simply be attributed to frost.
Organic, biodynamic — or neither?
Pavie Macquin is sometimes described in language that blurs environmental philosophy with formal certification.
The château itself is more careful. It speaks of viticulture respectful of soil life and of a “bio” philosophy, supported by practices including soil cultivation, natural grassing, manual vineyard work, massal selection and the use of plant preparations.
What the available material does not establish is certified organic status.
The evidence is clearer still regarding biodynamics. In a 2021 interview, estate representatives specifically resisted describing their approach as biodynamic and noted that vineyard work was not organised according to a lunar calendar.
For collectors or professionals evaluating environmental credentials, the distinction matters. Certification, farming philosophy and individual viticultural practices are separate categories and should not be treated as interchangeable.
Winemaking: less force, more definition
The cellar follows the vineyard’s parcel-by-parcel logic.
Recent château material describes gravity reception of whole berries followed by separate vinification of individual lots. Extraction is carried out through gentle pigeage, or punch-down, with long macerations. The 2022 technical sheet specifies concrete vats; documents from 2015 to 2018 refer to both wood and concrete, suggesting either an evolution in vessel use or different choices according to lot and vintage.
Other technical details are less clearly documented. The available material does not establish a fixed fermentation temperature, confirmed proportion of indigenous yeast fermentation, standing maceration duration in days or detailed malolactic protocol. Those gaps are better left open than filled with assumptions drawn from wider Right Bank practice.
Élevage is more clearly recorded.
From 2015 through 2018, Pavie Macquin specified 60 per cent new oak and 40 per cent one-wine barrels, with maturation lasting 16 to 20 months. From 2019 through 2022, new oak fell to 50 per cent, with the remainder again matured in one-wine barrels over the same broad period.
The wine is raised reductively on fine lees. First racking may not take place until approximately six to ten months into élevage, with another roughly a year later before bottling. Fining and filtration are used only when considered necessary.
A ten-percentage-point reduction in new oak may appear modest, but it provides one of the clearest measurable indications of Pavie Macquin’s stylistic direction. Combined with the emphasis on gentle extraction and later reporting of fewer punch-downs, it points towards a wine increasingly shaped to reveal rather than amplify the natural scale of its terroir.
This is not a retreat from power. The combination of Merlot, clay and low yields makes concentration intrinsic to the site. The change is one of calibration: less overt cellar imprint, more mineral tension and a finer relationship between fruit, tannin and acidity.
Château Pavie Macquin and Les Chênes de Macquin
The public range is straightforward: the grand vin, Château Pavie Macquin, and the second wine, Les Chênes de Macquin.
The distinction is based on selection rather than on a permanently separate vineyard. The château describes individually vinified and matured lots as a mosaic from which the final wines are assembled. Les Chênes therefore should not be understood as the product of one fixed block of lesser terroir.
The blend of the grand vin varies by vintage. Merlot has generally remained around 78 to 84 per cent in the documented recent vintages, supported by an increasing proportion of Cabernet Franc and, in some years, a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Recent grand-vin production generally sits in the tens of thousands of bottles: approximately 55,000 in 2015, 65,000 in 2016, 58,000 in 2017 and 66,000 in both 2018 and 2019. The château gives approximately 4,000 cases for 2020 and 4,400 for 2022. In 2022, 90 per cent of production was selected for the grand vin.
The inaugural vintage of Château Pavie Macquin is not securely established in the evidence available. Vinous has tasted the estate back to 1928, which confirms that wine carrying the identity existed by then, but does not prove that 1928 was the first vintage. The origin date of Les Chênes de Macquin is similarly unclear.
The vintages collectors should know
Pavie Macquin’s recent run is particularly revealing because the vintages from 2015 onwards exposed the vineyard to markedly different climatic conditions and, in turn, different expressions of the estate’s character.
The 2015 was ripe and structured, produced at 40 hl/ha from a blend of 84 per cent Merlot, 14 per cent Cabernet Franc and 2 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, and provides a useful early reference point for the modern era. The following year brought a much longer growing season, with the 2016 harvest extending as late as 21 October. The resulting wine combined Pavie Macquin’s natural density with the benefits of prolonged ripening and has emerged as an important modern benchmark.
The 2018 season presented a different challenge, with a wet spring and significant mildew pressure followed by a hot, dry summer. Despite those difficulties, the wine went on to attract exceptionally strong reviews across major critics. In 2019, another highly regarded vintage combined strong critical reception with later commentary highlighting its relative value, making it one of the more interesting recent options for back-vintage buyers.
The 2020 is notable for a different reason: unusually sharp critical disagreement. Antonio Galloni awarded the wine 100 points, while Neal Martin gave it 93, a striking illustration of how little a single consensus score can sometimes reveal about a wine. The extreme heat and drought of 2022 produced a yield of just 31 hl/ha, yet the finished wine was widely praised for retaining freshness alongside considerable concentration.
By 2023, the stylistic evolution of the estate was becoming increasingly apparent. Early commentary emphasised red fruit, florality, salinity and mineral energy alongside less forceful extraction — characteristics that fit closely with Pavie Macquin’s broader movement towards greater precision and transparency.
2016: A modern reference point
After a wet opening to the season, 2016 turned hot and dry in July. Ripening was exceptionally prolonged, and picking continued until 21 October.
The château described both tannic and aromatic maturity as complete. Subsequent reviews reinforced the vintage’s position in the modern run, including a reported 97+ from Antonio Galloni and a 95-point reassessment by Neal Martin in 2026.
Its importance lies less in any single score than in the combination of density and length of growing season. It shows Pavie Macquin’s natural power given time to achieve full maturity without sacrificing structural definition.
2018: Heat after mildew
The early challenge in 2018 was disease pressure. Heavy spring rainfall, particularly through May and June, created significant mildew risk before conditions turned hot and dry from mid-July.
The resulting wine achieved a notably strong critical record, including 97 from Wine Advocate and James Suckling, 98 from Decanter, 96 from Wine Spectator, 17/20 from Jancis Robinson and 95 from Antonio Galloni in the compilation available.
More important than the numbers themselves is what the vintage demonstrates: Pavie Macquin can accommodate substantial ripeness while retaining the aromatic lift and mineral tension repeatedly associated with its site.
2019: The back-vintage value case
Among recent vintages, 2019 deserves particular attention from collectors.
The season combined a hot summer with notably cool August nights, followed by useful rainfall from 22 September. Approximately 66,000 bottles were produced from a blend of 78 per cent Merlot, 20 per cent Cabernet Franc and 2 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Critical reception was strong, while later market commentary identified the vintage as interesting relative value. That does not establish the wine as objectively undervalued, but it gives 2019 one of the more persuasive combinations of quality and comparative price evidence in the modern Pavie Macquin market.
2020: When critics disagree
The 2020 growing season began extremely wet, with substantial mildew pressure, before moving into a dry and concentrated summer.
Yield fell to 31 hl/ha. The final wine was 80 per cent Merlot and 20 per cent Cabernet Franc.
Its critical reception is notable because two Vinous critics reached dramatically different conclusions: Antonio Galloni awarded 100 points; Neal Martin gave 93.
The seven-point spread within a single publication is more revealing than a composite average. It makes 2020 an especially useful example of why Pavie Macquin is better understood through individual critical perspectives — and, where possible, tasting — than through numerical consensus alone.
2022: Concentration without losing freshness
The 2022 vintage subjected vineyards across Bordeaux to exceptional heat and drought.
Pavie Macquin produced only 31 hl/ha from 12.88 hectares in production. The blend was 80 per cent Merlot, 19 per cent Cabernet Franc and 1 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, with 90 per cent of the crop selected for the grand vin.
Despite the extreme season, the château emphasised retained freshness, an interpretation broadly supported by critics. Scores included 95 from Wine Advocate, 97 from James Suckling, 95 from Wine Spectator, 17.5/20 from Jancis Robinson and 97 from Decanter in bottle. Galloni awarded 97 and Martin 94.
Wine Advocate’s published drinking window of 2030–2055 places the vintage firmly within Pavie Macquin’s long-term cellar tradition.
2023: Precision after 2022
No château-authored growing-season report for 2023 was identified in the underlying material, so discussion of the vintage conditions requires slightly greater caution.
The reported blend is 82 per cent Merlot, 17 per cent Cabernet Franc and 1 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, with harvest running from 18 September to 3 October.
Critical expectations were again high. More interesting stylistically are recurring descriptions of red fruit, florality, salinity, mineral energy and less forceful extraction. These characteristics closely match the estate’s wider direction of travel.
What does Pavie Macquin taste like?
The most consistent feature of Pavie Macquin is contrast.
The château itself speaks of power, flesh, minerality, freshness and generosity. Independent tasting notes repeatedly return to dark cherry, blackberry or black raspberry, occasional blueberry, violets and roses, liquorice, herbs, graphite, crushed stone and saline or chalk-like finishes. Tobacco may emerge with bottle age.
None of these descriptors is unusual in isolation. What gives Pavie Macquin its identity is their combination.
The wine can be deeply coloured, concentrated and tannic, yet critics repeatedly find freshness within that mass. The tannins are often described as fine-grained rather than coarse. The fruit can be ripe and dark while retaining floral lift and mineral definition.
Cabernet Franc appears increasingly important to that balance. Merlot supplies volume and breadth; Cabernet Franc contributes complexity and a firmer structural line.
Limestone also recurs in both producer language and independent criticism through descriptions of chalk, crushed stone, salinity, mineral bite and freshness. Such terms should not be treated as a literal chemical translation of soil into flavour, but their persistence is central to the wine’s critical identity.
A style in transition
Modern Saint-Émilion is often discussed through a crude opposition between traditionally austere wines and heavily extracted, highly oaked modern examples. Pavie Macquin fits neither category comfortably.
Its site produces natural concentration before the cellar intervenes. Strong clay, Merlot and occasionally low yields give the wine substantial density as a starting point.
What has changed is how that concentration is handled.
Published new-oak use fell from 60 per cent in 2015–2018 to 50 per cent from 2019 through 2022. Pigeage is described as gentle. Later commentary indicates that punch-down frequency was reduced again in 2023. Cyrille Thienpont has also emphasised acidity as central to the estate’s identity.
Taken together, the evidence points not towards a lighter Pavie Macquin so much as a more transparent one.
The clay remains. The Merlot remains. The tannic architecture remains. What increasingly emerges around them is the limestone: freshness, salinity and floral lift expressed with less reliance on extraction or new oak to increase scale.
How long does Pavie Macquin age?
The evidence for serious ageing capacity is strong.
Wine Advocate gives the 2022 a drinking window of 2030–2055. Berry Bros. & Rudd’s maturity guidance for the 2018 extends to 2048, while a specialist assessment of the 2023 projects 2029–2055.
Taken together, those windows support a broad expectation of two to three decades or more for strong vintages, although development will naturally depend on vintage, bottle format and storage.
The structure of the wine supports that view. Pavie Macquin combines concentration and firm tannin with the acidity and mineral tension repeatedly identified in the critical record.
Critical retrospectives reaching back to 1928 provide a further reminder that the château’s capacity for mature development predates its modern technical renaissance.
Les Chênes de Macquin operates on a shorter timetable. A specialist assessment of the 2023 suggested drinking from 2026 to 2032, although the château does not publish a standing ageing window for its second wine.
Pavie Macquin in the fine-wine market
The market case is more nuanced than the quality case.
Pavie Macquin has significant classification status, modest production and a strong critical record, yet historically has occupied a considerably lower price tier than Saint-Émilion’s trophy estates.
Liv-ex’s 2019 price-based Classification offers a useful historical reference. Unlike the official Saint-Émilion hierarchy, this exercise was based on market prices. Pavie Macquin appeared in its third tier with an average trade price of £528 per 12×75cl, unchanged from the 2017 exercise.
That figure is best understood as evidence of historical market positioning rather than as a quality ranking.
Release prices also show a meaningful reset in more recent campaigns. Comparative UK data place the 2016 at approximately £720 per 12 bottles and the 2017 at around £632. The 2023 was released at £576 per 12 in bond, while the 2024 fell to £426.
For 2025, a published six-bottle price of £249 produces a simple 12-bottle equivalent of £498. That is a mathematical comparison rather than an independently quoted 12-bottle release price.
The direction is nevertheless clear: entry prices have fallen materially from some earlier campaigns.
Whether that translates into an investment opportunity is harder to establish.
No current open-access Liv-ex performance series specific to Pavie Macquin was verified in the underlying research. It would therefore be unjustified to assign the estate a five- or ten-year return, claim that it has outperformed a fine-wine index or describe its liquidity with precision.
WineCap provided a broad producer-level market indicator of around £650 per case in September 2026, although this aggregates vintages and is not equivalent to a current Liv-ex market price for a particular year. A separate third-party interface displayed Liv-ex-labelled trades for the 2020 at £270–£299 per six bottles in May and June 2026; because those trades were not independently retrieved from Liv-ex, they are better treated as supporting evidence than as a primary benchmark.
Relative value, not trophy-wine economics
Pavie Macquin’s strongest collector proposition is relative rather than speculative.
Its wines can achieve exceptional critical recognition, have substantial ageing potential and are produced in quantities limited enough to maintain interest without relying on extreme scarcity. Recent en-primeur campaigns have also lowered the price of entry.
At the same time, Pavie Macquin does not display the trophy-market dynamics of Bordeaux’s most globally recognised labels. The available evidence does not establish comparable trading liquidity, nor is production so minute that rarity alone determines pricing.
That distinction may be part of the attraction.
The 2019 offers the clearest evidence-supported example. Strong bottle scores coincide with market commentary identifying it as an interesting back-vintage proposition. That does not prove financial undervaluation, but it makes 2019 particularly relevant for buyers weighing drinking quality against purchase price.
The 2023 provides a different case. Its UK release was £576 per 12 bottles, while a US merchant characterised its offer as 29 per cent below the preceding vintage. Critical expectations nevertheless remained high.
The cheaper 2024 illustrates the other side of the equation: a lower release price does not automatically create superior value when critical reception is more restrained.
Auction presence, provenance and large formats
Pavie Macquin has a meaningful history at auction.
Christie’s records wines including 1959, 1983, 1998, 2000 and 2006. The 2006 appeared in 12-bottle original wooden cases, while descriptions of older lots paid close attention to fill levels and bottle condition.
That establishes long-running auction circulation. It does not imply rarity on the scale of Pétrus or Le Pin, nor should individual auction appearances be treated as representative market prices.
For mature Pavie Macquin, provenance increasingly matters. Fill level, label and capsule condition, original packaging and storage history become progressively more important as bottles age.
No château-specific counterfeit scandal or documented pattern of elevated counterfeiting was identified in the research. That does not eliminate the normal authenticity and condition concerns associated with mature Bordeaux. Particularly old bottles and large formats merit the same scrutiny applied elsewhere in the fine-wine market.
Scarcity at Pavie Macquin arises more through vintage, age, provenance and format than through special cuvées. No recurring prestige bottling or single-parcel flagship was identified; the range remains centred on the grand vin and Les Chênes de Macquin.
Recent listings confirm magnums as well as 3-litre and 6-litre bottles. Production by format has not been disclosed, so their precise scarcity cannot be quantified.
For vertical collectors, original wooden cases, large formats and well-documented mature bottles are therefore likely to matter more than the pursuit of rare alternative labels the estate does not appear to produce.
Comparable Saint-Émilion estates
The most revealing comparisons begin with geology rather than prestige.
Troplong Mondot borders Pavie Macquin to the east and occupies the same elevated Mondot and plateau sector. It is also a Premier Grand Cru Classé, making the pair particularly useful for examining how neighbouring clay-limestone sites are interpreted by different teams and cellar philosophies.
Château Pavie, immediately to the south, provides another direct geographical reference. Its classification and market position are different: Pavie carries the 2022 classification’s “distinction A”. It is therefore more useful as a higher-hierarchy geological neighbour than as a direct market peer.
TrotteVieille, to the north and below Pavie Macquin’s plateau position, is also a Premier Grand Cru Classé and offers another limestone-influenced reference. The available evidence does not support describing the two wines as stylistic equivalents.
Larcis Ducasse offers a different comparison. Nicolas Thienpont managed the estate from 2002 until 2024, and it also worked with Derenoncourt Consultants. Its own descriptions emphasise clay-limestone soils, fruit, freshness, chalk, salinity and power. The estates therefore shared part of a technical culture while expressing different sites.
Collector’s perspective
Pavie Macquin brings together several eras of Saint-Émilion unusually well.
Its nineteenth-century identity is tied to Albert Macquin and the reconstruction of vineyards after phylloxera. Its contemporary reputation grew from the technical renewal associated with Derenoncourt and Thienpont from the 1990s onwards. Its vineyard occupies one of the appellation’s most compelling geological settings: elevated clay over limestone, combining water-retention capacity with structural freshness.
Just as importantly, the estate continued evolving after achieving formal recognition.
Promotion to Premier Grand Cru Classé in 2006 did not freeze its style. New oak subsequently declined. Extraction became more restrained. Cabernet Franc received greater attention. Replanting moved towards higher density.
The result is not a fundamentally lighter wine, but an increasingly articulate expression of a naturally powerful site.
For collectors, the modern run offers several distinct entry points. The 2016 serves as a reference for long-season maturity; 2018 combines ripeness with broad critical strength; 2019 presents the strongest current evidence for relative back-vintage value; 2020 demonstrates the importance of individual critical judgment; 2022 joins concentration to freshness; and 2023 appears to continue the estate’s movement towards precision.
Mature-bottle buyers should place provenance above headline vintage reputation. Large formats may bring additional scarcity, but precise production figures by format are not publicly available. Original wooden cases and credible storage histories become progressively more important with age.
The investment argument deserves the same discipline. Pavie Macquin offers classification, ageing capacity, strong critical performance and comparatively accessible pricing. What the available evidence does not establish is trophy-level liquidity or a verified record of index-beating returns.
That distinction may ultimately define the château’s appeal.
Pavie Macquin occupies a part of the fine-wine market where the wine itself can still dominate the discussion. Its prestige is substantial but not maximal; production is limited without being microscopic; critical scores can reach the highest levels without automatically pushing prices into Saint-Émilion’s trophy tier.
For collectors who place limestone terroir, vintage depth, long-term drinking potential and relative value ahead of label hierarchy alone, Château Pavie Macquin remains a particularly serious proposition.