Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesPure aromas of currants, plums, cherries and Spanish cedar follow through to a full body with super concentration of fruit, yet forever polished and long. A cylinder of wonderfully ripe fruit and tannin's goes on for minutes. This needs at least three or four years to soften and begin to come together. Super second wine. Try after 2027.
This latest release has richness and luscious black fruits that dominate the underlying firmer tannic structure. It is a proper second wine in the sense that it will age well over the medium term, giving drinking pleasure from 2024.
Ripe fruits of fig and damson that could do with a little more juice in between but this has lots of tannins and lots of black fruits concentrated with St-Estèphe power. Drinking Window 2026 - 2038
The second wine of Cos D'Estournel is the 2018 Pagodes De Cos, which checks in as 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. A young, unevolved yet beautifully pure bouquet of cassis, graphite, damp earth, and cedar gives way to a medium to full-bodied, concentrated, yet fresh, focused Saint-Estèphe that will benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age, and I've no doubt it will still be drinking nicely at age 20. While a lot of second wines are made in a more up-front, charming, ready-to-go style, this has a more serious, age-worthy vibe. It's a serious wine. Rating: 92+
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.
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.