Les Pagodes de Cos 2016

Tasted blind. Sweet and round on the nose. Good attack with tea-leaf flavour. Dry finish. Very appetising and well mannered without being at all flashy. Builds pretty well on the finish. Admirably persistent. But not one of the most intense.Drink 2025 – 2038

The second wine of the estate is no slouch. The 2016 Pagodes de Cos has some grand vin character in its cassis and graphite aromas and flavors. Showing more incense, graphite, and hints of flowers with air time, this medium to full-bodied, rounded, beautifully textured effort is well worth a case purchase. Drink this beauty, the equal to most estates’ top wines, while you wait on the grand vin to come around. Drink 2019-2039.

The cassis and cherry mix is sweet the fruit rich and fleshy supported by firm but ripe tannins. There is underlying freshness lighter at the back with rich black cherry on the finish. 2025-40

Just over half of the crop at Cos went into the second wine in 2016, with most of it from the same plots as usual. Subtly oaked and graceful, it’s a St. Estèphe-meets-Margaux style that’s a world away from what the château produced in 2009. Scented, poised and refined. 2022-30

The 2016 Les Pagodes de Cos is blended of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46.5% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and 0.5% Cabernet Franc. It has a deep garnet-purple color and opens with notions of warm cassis, black cherries and smoked meats giving way to scents of charcoal, underbrush and cloves plus a waft of new leather. Medium to full-bodied, it fills the palate with generous black fruits and some compelling red fruit sparks, supported by ripe, grainy tannins and finishing long and spicy. Drink 2020-2033.

The 2016 Les Pagodes de Cos is matured in 30% new oak. It has an intense bouquet for a deuxième vin, featuring blackberry, bilberry, light cedar and graphite aromas, quite Pauillac in style. The medium-bodied palate is fresh and vigorous though not deep, displaying fine tannin and exerting a gentle grip. There is a symmetry about this Les Pagodes, which is longer than other vintages, with just a hint of graphite and cracked black pepper on the finish. Excellent. 13.02% alcohol. Drink 2021-2035.

The 2016 Les Pagodes de Cos is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46.5% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot and a splash of Cabernet Franc, delivering 13.02% alcohol and matured in 30% new oak. It has an intense bouquet with aromas of blackcurrant, bilberry, graphite and a touch of sea salt (just a nod to the Gironde Estuary perhaps?). The palate is medium-bodied with crisp tannin, quite sleek in the mouth with plenty of black fruit tinged with graphite. It has a little more persistence compared to the 2015 Pagodes last year from barrel, very harmonious with a twist of bitter black cherry and tobacco on the finish. Very fine—drink from two or three years in bottle.Drink Date 2020 - 2035

The brightness and focus to this second wine of Cos are certainly impressive. You can see the quality. Full body, a tight and focused palate and beautiful fruit and density. Ultra-fine tannins. Gorgeous. Sophisticated.

Fresh, muscular, racy nose. Sweet start – really rather flirtatious! Racy and elegant. But not for the long term. 13.02%Drink 2023-2032