Winemaker Notes
Blend: 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
I like the currant, spice, white pepper and cedar aromas here that follow through to a medium body and pretty core of fruit with currants, tobacco, chocolate and cedar. 60% merlot, 36% cabernet sauvignon, 3% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot. Needs two or three years to soften.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromatic blackberry fruits go along with black-spice scents. The wine's richness is lifted by great acidity to partner the blackberry flavors.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Mostly Merlot but including 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2021 Pagodes De Cos has a juicy, medium-bodied, lively style that shows the fresher vibe of the vintage while bringing good depth of fruit and texture. Bright black cherries, currants, sappy tobacco, and some graphite/lead pencil notes all define the aromatics, and it has some classic Saint-Estèphe earth and spice. Raised in 25% new barrels and with 12.49% alcohol, drink this balanced, elegant Pagodes over the coming 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Les Pagodes de Cos is a strong effort, offering up aromas of cassis, charcoal, dark berries and cigar wrapper, followed by a medium to full-bodied, sweet and fleshy palate that's quite rich and extracted, concluding with a saline finish. It's a blend of 60% Merlot, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot.
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Vinous
The 2021 Les Pagodes de Cos is a big, potent wine. A blast of plum, blackberry, espresso, chocolate and licorice is dialed up to the maximum. Readers will find an explosive, almost shockingly full-throttle wine for the year. This feels a bit bombastic to me. –Antonio Galloni
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Wine Spectator
Sleek and fresh, with a core of damson plum and red cherry notes that easily absorb the vintage's austere edge, letting savory and iris accents dart through prettily on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2030.
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.