Château Cos d’Estournel Les Pagodes de Cos

About Château Cos d’Estournel Les Pagodes de Cos

Château Cos d’Estournel Les Pagodes de Cos is an elegant, well-structured wine that opens up with aeration. It is quite smooth on the palate thanks to elegant silky tannins, and also displays beautiful minerality. The bouquet is particularly attractive, with hints of black fruit and spice, especially black pepper.

About Château Cos d’Estournel

Cos d’Estournel is ideally situated at the heart of an undulating landscape in the northern Médoc. The estate’s rolling contours served as inspiration for its name; ”cos” is derived from the word for “hill of pebbles” in the old Gascon dialect. A plateau of deep gravel comprises the core of the site. Gravelly and clayey, the two hills that slope downward from this point benefit respectively from eastern and south-southwestern exposures. These geologic features are completed by a clay vein running diagonally through the vineyard. The exposure and soil of each plot—and even each row of vine plants—alongside environmental concerns and respect for nature determine the selection of grape varieties and growing techniques. A perfect mastery of the geology of the estate’s terroirs and each individual plot allows its teams to select the most appropriate varieties for the different soils. Merlot is found to the east, on clay-limestone soils, while Cabernet Sauvignon is grown on the highest parts of the plateau, where drainage is ideal. A near miracle in geographic and geologic terms, Cos d’Estournel benefits from an unparalleled combination of soils and exposures. This wealth of natural variations fully expresses itself in the estate’s wines, which are among the world’s most highly reputed.

Intimately persuaded of the potential of his vines, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel sought constantly to expand, and would gradually acquire the prime plots on the hill of Cos. Today the vineyard occupies 100 hectares. Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for two-thirds of this precious mosaic of numerous plots, with a lesser proportion of the land dedicated to Merlot and a small proportion to Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Nestled among the vine plants of the estate—45 years old on average—are certain very precious specimens, guardians of the vineyard’s heritage. Some of the oldest vine plants date back to the early 20th century. They continue to thrive, finding nourishment in the deepest layers of the land. Their grapes bring depth and structure to the wines of Cos d’Estournel, a testament to the incomparable complexity of the vineyard’s soil. The grapes from these mature plants are blended with the fruit of their younger counterparts to produce the Grand Vin of Cos d’Estournel. The average age of vine plants whose grapes are used in the estate’s first wine is 55 years old.