Pagodes de Cos 2020

An enticing style, with sparkles of anise and black tea adding nuance to a core of lushly textured loganberry and mulberry fruit. Reveals a light kiss of incense on the open-knit finish. A crowd-pleaser for mid-term drinking. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2034. 12,000 cases made, 1,800 cases imported.

Ripe dark fruits on the nose, smelling fleshy with liquorice, tobacco, dried herb and flecks of dark chocolate. Smooth and sleek on the palate, with gorgeous texture and weight in the mouth. Grippy and mouthfilling with powdery tannins gently supporting the rich fruit profile. A bold, confident wine with chew, flesh and plenty of appeal. One for earlier drinking to enjoy its youthful opulence, but it will age well too.

Spicy redcurrants with dark chocolate, as well as bark and black tea on the nose. Full-bodied with firm and fine tannins that are nicely velvet in texture. Delicious and savory finish. Needs four or five years to come together. Try after 2026.

58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot. Cask sample. Structured and fresh, with present but unaggressive tannins. Fruit bright and lifted. Upright and classic in its demeanour, clearly with ageing potential. (JL)

Spicy, smoky, currant, espresso, flower, and licorice create the perfume. On the palate, the medium-bodied, soft, plush, and polished wine is almost ready to go. And that’s a good thing, because you’ll want to dig into all its layers of ripe, fresh, creamy, lush dark red fruits and their spicy, chocolatey edge. For a second wine, this is a fabulous effort. Drink this young while waiting for the Grand Vin to develop. Drink from 2023–2038.

Deep ruby, opaque core, purple reflections, broader brightening on the rim. Nuances of ripe sweet cherry, a hint of liquorice, candied orange zest, fine savoury notes. Juicy, ripe cherry and dark chocolate, seems light on its feet, well-integrated tannins, mineral and long, a versatile food wine.

Sweet red berries, kirsch, lightly roasted oak and coffee notes. Nice palate in a classically styled, fresh, medium-bodied shape with pure and elegant fruit, good balance and length, already accessible without lacking structure.

Showing even better from bottle than barrel, the 2020 Pagodes De Cos checks in as 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Remarkably elegant and balanced, it has a great nose of red and black fruits, sandalwood, tobacco leaf, and spice as well as medium- to full-bodied richness on the palate. It's shockingly good and up with the top second wines out there. It will evolve for at least two decades.

58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot. Deep purple with an opaque core and a violet rim. Complex bouquet of ripe black cherry, dark chocolate pralines and licorice, backed by exotic woods, a delicate violet scent and refined cassis spice. On the opulent palate, a creamy texture, abundant ripe extract, supportive drive and a tightly knit tannin framework. The focused finish shows dark fruit, noticeable terroir-driven spice and a gentle astringency, with very subtle crunchy notes in the background, rounded off.

Kunz barrel sample 2021: (58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot, 13.28% vol. alcohol) Silky, sweet, fresh bouquet; cherries, strawberries, brown chocolate, vanilla. Balanced, medium-bodied, refined palate with sweet fruit, fine tannins, dense, creamy structure, powerful, sweet aromatics, long, fresh finish.

A vintage that marks 20 years since Reybier’s arrival, and an excellent example of Cos’s success under his ownership. Here you get a creamier quality to the fruit than in some of the older vintages in the lineup, with blackberry pastille, raspberry purée, careful extraction, finessed tannins, black tea and liquorice. Still young but hovering on the brink of being ready to be opened and shared. Always worth noting with 2020 wines that this was also the Covid vintage, challenging in terms of manpower, but the team had plenty of time to focus on their vineyards—made easier by the fact that each team member at Cos always has their own plot to work on. Harvest September 10 to 24, Dominique Arangoïts technical director, Eric Boissenot consultant, 20% new oak for ageing.

The 2020 Pagodes de Cos is deep garnet-purple in color. Notions of plum preserves, black cherries, and fruitcake spring from the glass, followed by hints of Chinese five spice and potpourri. The medium-bodied palate is tightly wound, with great freshness and fine-grained tannins, finishing with a spicy kick.

A nose of prunes and dark fruits, lightly spiced. The palate is exceptionally precise, energetic, and spicy, with growing density while staying focused on freshness, and velvety tannins with a gentle chocolatey note.

The nose is delightfully fresh and offers good definition, elegance, a subtle tight edge, and good precision. It reveals notes of vibrant black plum and strawberry, then more lightly sour cherry, joined by small touches of strawberry and blackberry, as well as hints of licorice, sweet blond tobacco, and vanilla. The palate is fresh and fruity, with minerality, good definition, roundness, smoothness, an attractive fruit core, gourmandise, a certain tension, a touch of finely contained richness, fine grain, and drive. On the palate, this wine shows notes of pulpy/juicy blackberry, vibrant blackcurrant, and more lightly small black berries, with touches of raspberry and sour cherry, as well as hints of blond tobacco, cocoa/mocha, subtle toasty nuances, vanilla, camphor, and toasted/roasted hazelnut. Good length. A fine chew on the finish/persistence. Good length. The tannins are fine and delicately velvety.

This second wine is complex and structured. At same time, it has the proper openness and precocity of a second wine. Likely to age smoothly, the wine will be ready from 2026.