Château Pavie: The Perse Era
Like one or two others that have arrived in Bordeaux in recent years, such as the Cathiards of Smith-Haut-Lafitte, Gérard Perse was a successful supermarket magnate who had acquired considerable wealth. Upon the sale of two chains of shops he looked to Bordeaux for his next challenge, his intention being to buy an estate in keeping with his financial status. His aim was high, and his sights were set on the right bank. In 1993 he made his first purchase with Château Monbousquet, an estate situated to the south of St Emilion. Located on sandy terroir of no great repute, I suspect this was not the estate Perse really hungered for; nevertheless it gave him a toehold in the region, as well as – once suitably refurbished – an attractive and rather spacious château that he and his family could call home.
He followed up this first purchase a few years later with the acquisition of Château Pavie-Decesse, bought from the aforementioned Jean-Paul Valette in 1997. This estate, since absorbed into the Pavie vineyard, lay close to the top of the Côte de Pavie that run up to the limestone plateau on which the town of St Emilion sits; this immediately placed it streets ahead of Château Monbousquet, but Perse’s desire was not yet satiated it seems. This only came the following year, when he acquired Château Pavie, an estate with the potential that I think Perse really desired; a vineyard where, with the appropriate work and attention to detail the wines could, perhaps, challenge those of the very upper tier of the St Emilion classification which at that time included only two estates, Château Cheval Blanc and Château Ausone.
