Chateau Cos d’Estournel is a second-growth wine within the St. Estephe area of Bordeaux, however the operation is producing way more than its $75-a-bottle flagship choices. The operation — the “s” in Cos will not be silent, by the best way — has six ranges of wines, each white and pink, most of which don’t truly carry the total Cos d’Estournel identify.
At the moment we have a look at two of them, Pagodes de Cos and G d’Estournel — each from non-current vintages which we had been despatched for evaluation.
2018 Pagodes de Cos Saint-Estephe – Tight up entrance, the wine slowly evolves in glass to disclose a fairly charming mixture of turned earth, contemporary rosemary, graphite, and a subdued plum/prune character. A touch of chocolate arrives earlier than a observe of tobacco leaf and a slight balsamic character, which take issues to a spot of slight austerity — with a observe of rhubarb, maybe cranberry, evident on the end. The wine reviewed is a 2018 classic, whereas 2023 is the present launch — no thought why such an outdated bottle was despatched for evaluation — however the added age and the perils of transport could have added considerably to this wine’s basic sense of maturity. This wine feels prefer it’s simply beginning to crest over its peak, although there’s probably a couple of years of runway remaining to take pleasure in it — significantly as a pairing with a daring, pink meat-based meal. B+ / $54
2019 G d’Estournel Medoc – Curiously named (and in a Burgundy fashion bottle as an alternative of a Bordeaux bottle), this wine is oddly meant to “evoke the wonderment of an explorer returning residence from the Far East.” Therefore the man on the elephant on the label. It’s not what you anticipate from Bordeaux, and that’s OK. Time’s are altering, and wine can too. Within the glass, “G” reveals a fruit-forward high quality that’s distant from the tightness exhibited by the Pagodes de Cos expression, although notes of plums, laced with florals, ultimately discover their solution to some parts of turned earth and a few lingering tannin — although maybe starting to fade because of the wine’s maturity. Vivid touches of blueberry and a whiff of lilac emerge on a surprisingly prolonged and well-rounded end. A- / $39
2018 Pagodes de Cos Saint-Estephe
$54
