Château Pavie Macquin

The château

Albert Macquin, who lived from 1852 to 1911, came to the Gironde in the middle of the phylloxera and met it head on. At Maison-Neuve, the estate he bought at Saint-Georges-de-Montagne, he replanted the vines that had been pulled up in Cabernet Sauvignon grafted on American rootstock, riparia and jacquez, and his family credits him with bringing the grafted vine to Saint-Émilion. Then he assembled a vineyard. By 1893 Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, could set out what he had put together: 26 hectares in a single piece on the slope facing the apse of the church of Saint-Émilion, between Troplong and the growth of Ferdinand Bouffard, among them 6.30 hectares from Mme Pigasse, whose wine had always been sold as Pavie, 3.72 hectares of the Pavie of M. Chapus, 5 hectares of Puygenestou from the comte de Malet and 9 at Château La Serre, planted two thirds Cabernet Sauvignon and one third Merlot, all on American grafts. The name Pavie-Macquin was in print by 1922, at 40 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels) under his heirs: 25 hectares in one piece, an estate he had made from nothing.

His descendants, the Corre-Macquin family, own it still. Nicolas Thienpont manages it and Cyrille Thienpont is technical director, and the list approved in September 2022 places it among the 14 Premiers Grands Crus Classés. Today it covers 15 hectares, 14.6 of them in production, on the clay and limestone of the plateau over asteriated limestone, planted 78% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon at 6,600 vines a hectare, 35 years old on average, with natural grass between the rows. The grapes are picked by hand and the whole berries go into concrete vats by gravity, lot by lot; the wine is raised on its fine lees for 16 to 20 months in barrel, 60% new and 40% 1 year old. About 66,000 bottles are made, and Les Chênes de Macquin is the second wine.

At a glance

Appellation

Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

Commune

Saint-Émilion, on the limestone plateau

Classification

Premier Grand Cru Classé B, 2022

Owners

The Corre-Macquin family, descendants of Albert Macquin

Direction

Nicolas Thienpont, manager; Cyrille Thienpont, technical director

Vineyard

15 hectares, 14.6 in production; 6,600 vines a hectare; vines 35 years old on average

Soil

Clay and limestone on the plateau, over asteriated limestone Terroir of Saint-Émilion →

Grapes

Merlot 78%, Cabernet Franc 20%, Cabernet Sauvignon 2%

Farming

Natural grass between the rows

Cellar

Picked by hand; whole berries into concrete by gravity; 16 to 20 months in barrel, 60% new

Production

About 66,000 bottles

Wines

Château Pavie Macquin; Les Chênes de Macquin

In history

26 hectares in one piece in 1893, much of it Pavie land; Pavie-Macquin at 40 tonneaux in 1922