Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve: Admirable body and texture; the freshness and complexity of the flavors are unique to St-Estèphe in terms of their brightness and focus. Great length. A shining example of the modern balance between vinification techniques and faithfulness to the terroir and the vintage. What’s more, Pagodes is one of the three best second wines of the vintage. 19/20

John Gilman: Château Cos d’Estournel is the ripest of the three wines at the estate this year. On the nose, the wine is remarkably pure for its octane level: it offers up a reasonably complex melange of black cherries, a touch of kirsch, stony soil tones, fine cigars, smoke, and a very refined base of new oak that is mostly redolent of lead pencil. On the palate, the wine is deep, full-bodied, and very powerful in personality, with stunningly fine balance for such a large-scale wine. The mid-palate depth here is absolutely exceptional, and the very firm tannins are seamlessly integrated into the body of the wine. The finish is massive, but I find no signs of uncovered alcohol on the back end. Like other high-alcohol 2010s, the ripeness here is most keenly felt in a loss of focus and precision from the high octane, in addition to a touch of overripe aromatics and flavors. But in comparison to what was an egregiously out of balance 2009 Cos, the 2010 is remarkably more impressive in terms of harnessing its power and crafting a perfectly balanced wine. It is still a very tannic 2010 and will need plenty of cellaring to start to soften, but it should be extremely long-lived as well. 2025–2100. 17+

Michael Schuster: Fresh, minerally, delicately gravelly; a particularly refined nose, with a subtle, ripe blackcurrant, Cabernet fruit, which should make for a superb bouquet. Wonderfully, discreetly balanced Cos, full, fresh, and with an exceptionally refined tannin texture; long, elegant, fragrantly sweet, complex, subtle,and minerally; marked spiciness, great scope, great harmony, a superb tenacity of flavor in the mouth, with absolutely no excess and a splendid, fragrant, cassis-perfumed aromatic length. A truly beautiful, refined, classic Cos d’Estournel. First-growth quality of effortless grace, finesse, and completeness; an excitingly luminous expression of a great terroir; the absolute opposite in style and character of its 2009. 2024–45+. 18.5/19.5