Winemaker Notes
The 2017 vintage is characteristically round on the palate butalso offers its own unique charm. Silky and immensely fresh, it is a lively, energetic wine with intense fruit. Velvety with a dense mid-palate, it is particularly flavorsome and enticing.
Blend: 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This shows wonderful depth and richness, yet it’s so fresh and vivid with dark berries, dark plums and spice. Full-bodied, balanced and creamy with beautiful flavors and structure. So many spices in this. Only 12% alcohol. Second wine of Château Cos-d’Estournel. Better after 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine has velvet tannins and lusciously ripe black fruits. Despite the tannins, the it is more about fruit and ripeness than about structure. Drink 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot, this second wine accounts for about 55% of production. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Les Pagodes de Cos sashays out of the glass with youthful, presumptuous notes of Black Forest cake, raspberry preserves, cassis and spice cake with nuances of lavender, chocolate box, anise and underbrush. Medium-bodied, the palate has wonderful elegance and precision, with a very finely grained frame and seamless freshness supporting the soft-spoken red and black fruits, finishing with a quiet intensity.
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Decanter
This is enjoyable right off the bat, with its firm dark chocolate, liquorice and cassis character, joined by licks of gourmet patisserie swirling through - exactly what you expect from Pagodes de Cos, without losing its sense of restraint. I like the subdued power, and it seems more in the style of 2014 than 2015 or 2016. It's a touch austere but appealing, with a sumptuous touch that keeps it in the Cos stable. 60% of production went to the second wine this year, almost entirely from separate plots. Just 20% of the plots are interchangeable between grand vin and second wine, depending on the vintage character.
Barrel Sample -
Jeb Dunnuck
Deeper ruby-colored and based on 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, and 1% each of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, the 2017 Pagodes De Cos is similarly hued to the grand vin and offers classy notes of creme de cassis, red currants, toasted spice, dried tobacco, and graphite. It's rich, medium-bodied, nicely concentrated, yet relatively closed on the palate. Give bottles 2-4 years and enjoy over the coming decade. Rating: 90+
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.