Pagodes de Cos, Saint-Estèphe, Cos d'Estournel 2016
Parker 92 (2025); Tim Atkin MW 94; Chris Kissack 95; James Suckling 94 (2025); Jeff Leve 93; Wine Enthusiast 93; Christer Byklum 93; Vinous 92 (2025); JancisRobinson.com 92; Falstaff 92; The Wine Independent 92; Jean-Marc Quarin 92; Vinum Wine Magazine 91; Wine Spectator 91; Giuseppe Lauria 90; Decanter 89
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Why this wine
Pagodes comes off plots identified for it on the Hill of Pebbles, not simply what the grand vin declines. 2016 gave a long slow ripening after a very wet start, and the wine carries the richness that follows, with the smoke and iron Saint-Estèphe is known for. A Second Growth terroir and a Second Growth cellar at a fraction of the grand vin.
At a glance
- Grape
- Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 46%, Petit Verdot 3%, Cabernet Franc 1%
- Region
- Bordeaux, France
- Alcohol
- 13.00%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Short (3-5 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Red Meat, Barbecue, Cheese
How it tastes
Warm cassis and black cherry with smoked meat, charcoal, clove and a hint of new leather. Voluptuous and full-bodied, generous in black fruit, the tannins ripe and refined and the finish long and spicy. Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 46%, Petit Verdot 3%, Cabernet Franc 1%.
The producer
Cos d'Estournel was founded in 1811 by Louis Gaspard d'Estournel, who built an Asian-inspired palace at the centre of his vineyard on the site known as the Hill of Pebbles and sold his wine into the Far East and India, earning the name the Maharajah of Saint-Estèphe. Classified a Second Growth in 1855, the estate was bought by Michel Reybier in 2000 and now works from a fully gravity-fed cellar. The vineyard has grown from fourteen hectares in 1791 to a hundred today, a mosaic of gravel-and-clay slopes facing east and south-west around a deep-gravel central plateau, ventilated by the nearby Gironde. Pagodes is drawn from plots identified for it rather than from whatever the grand vin leaves behind. Grapes were chilled on arrival and cold-macerated, fermented at low temperature to avoid harsh extraction, with pump-overs run by gravity, then aged in French oak, 30% of it new. 2016 delivered 62% more rain than usual to the end of June before a warm dry finish, giving a long slow ripening and wine of natural richness.
Food and drinking
Serve at 17–18°C. Good with rib of beef, barbecued short rib, roast venison, or aged Gouda. Drinking well now and through to around 2035; give it two hours in a decanter.