Pagodes de Cos 2017

On the lighter side, featuring tea, damson plum, blood orange and sandalwood notes mixed with a hint of savory through the finish. Pretty and ready to drink. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2024. 16,666 cases made.

Ripe bramble aromas with some herbal tones and touches of chocolate and violet. Quite a serious, taut style, yet for the medium term.

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.

56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot. Harvested 12–30 September. 30% new oak. pH 3.71, IPT 61. Much more scented than the Goulée just tasted, with lovely dark-red fruits here. Sweet cassis and a light floral note. Delicate but harmonious structure, cool and silky, extremely silky, very fresh, apparently delicate but persistent too. Elegant and fresh right to the finish. Succulent and beautifully balanced. (JH)

With loads of dark, red berries and spice box notes, the wine is round and the texture has softness and flesh.

Dark ruby garnet, purple reflections, subtle edge brightening, fine blackberry confit, ripe plums, a hint of precious wood and orange zest, nuances of strawberry confit in the background. Juicy cherry fruit, red berry nuances, mineral and fresh structure, rather lightweight, charming, already easy to drink, a refined food wine.

Dark ruby with sparkling highlights. Fragrant red currants, followed by ripe raspberries and violet. On the mid-palate, a dense extract and a finely sandy texture. The finish is lively with sour cherry juice. Selection takes place in the vineyard, i.e., the plots are precisely defined in advance.

Kunz barrel sample 18: (56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot, 12.5% vol. alcohol, 30% new barrique) Delicately floral, fruity bouquet with blackberry, cassis, tobacco, dark chocolate. Balanced, medium-bodied palate with fine-grained, silky tannins, good sweet fruit, velvety texture, and a subtly bitter finish.

The 2017 Pagodes de Cos is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. It opens with open-knit scents of crushed black plums, boysenberries, and kirsch, plus suggestions of fragrant soil, cinnamon toast, and dried herbs. Medium-bodied, the palate is juicy and plush, delivering compelling tension and a savory finish.

Les Pagodes 2017 is also well poised, with plenty of charm and brilliance, both on the palate and on the finish.

A broad, intense, juicy, moreish wine with round, well-integrated, elegant tannins and a lovely, taut finish.

The nose is elegant and offers minerality, fine concentration, and subtle power. This wine needs decanting. It reveals notes of ripe blackberry, raspberry and, more lightly, blackcurrant, combined with small touches of violet/iris, racy minerality, and discreet hints of sweet spices/tonka bean. The palate is fruity and balanced, with good definition, indulgence, lovely juiciness, roundness, racy minerality, a very fine tangy thread, tension, and a subtle creaminess. On the palate, it expresses notes of small red berries and fleshy/juicy red cherry, combined with fine touches of blackberry, rosewood, violet, and discreet hints of iris, tonka bean, toasted nuances, and a subtle hint of mocha/cocoa husk. A fine firmness and tension on the finish/persistence.

Dark color of medium intensity. Fruity nose with a slightly lively touch. Very fruity on the palate, developing on a soft, flavorful body; pleasant evolution, a little discreet in length.

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.