France

Cabernet Sauvignon

Merlot

Cabernet Franc

Petit Verdot

Ch. Cos d'Estournel

Cos d'Estournel 2eme Cru Classe Saint-Estephe

Bordeaux

Saint-Estephe

Highly textural, with layers and depth, this shows savoury and slim black fruits, real finesse, beautifully precise and grippy texture, cocoa bean, espresso, lovely quality. This feels genuinely old school in the best sense of the word. Harvest 23 September to 7 October. 3.52 pH. 20% new oak, 46% 1st wine. 

Inside Bordeaux

Deep garnet-purple in color. Requires a little swirling to unlock notes of fresh blackcurrants and kirsch, leading to suggestions of bay leaves, wet slate, and tapenade with a touch of violets. The light-bodied palate is refreshing and elegant with fine-grained tannins and a whispery finish.

by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW

Step into Cos d'Estournel, with its richness, depths and layers of cocoa bean, liquorice, espresso, chocolate, exceptional chewiness on the tannins, making things fairly serious at this early stage, with a promise of slow-revealed pleasure over the decades ahead. First time doing green harvest in the vineyards since 2008, causing some worries over the late heat waves on already ripening grapes, but they have retained balanced alchols here, and there is plenty of juice to lift things up on the finish. Harvest September 12 to 29 (last year finished September 22). 50% new oak for ageing, 53% 1st wine. In organic conversion (that began in 2021, but have had to extend after addition of a few more plots to the vineyard).

Amatør

A blend of 64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot, the 2021 Cos d’Estounel has a deep purple-black color. It hits the ground running with expressive notes of black cherries, fresh blackcurrants, and mulberries, leading to hints of violets, crushed rocks, black olives, and forest floor. Light-bodied and tightly wound in the mouth, the palate features vibrant black berry and floral layers, with a fine-grained texture and bright acidity, finishing long and minerally.

Brilliant, just so much complexity and depth. The serious tannic heft means this is not the most exuberant Cos d'Estournel but it is such good quality, with edges of violet and peony alongside black tea, turmeric, cloves, blueberry, raspberry, waves of confident tannins, and sea-salted bitter chocolate. Harvest September 10 to 24, 39hl/ha yield, 3.9ph.

Composed of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot, the 2019 Cos d'Estournel is deep garnet-purple in color. It is slightly closed to begin, revealing slow-emerging scents of baked black cherries, mulberries, fragrant earth, and potpourri, leading to a core of warm cassis and pencil shavings. The medium to full-bodied palate is rock-solid, well-supporting the tightly wound, muscular black fruit, finishing with plenty of freshness and a minerally lift. It will require another 4-5 years to emerge from this cocoon and spread its wings.

Just over the border from Pauillac into St Estèphe, Michel Reybier's Cos d'Estournel is for me the wine of the 2018 vintage in St Estèphe. Perhaps because it often showcases turmeric, cinammon and saffron spices, finding them in 2018 feels in keeping with the signature flavours of the property rather than being overly marked by vintage conditions. There is complexity and power here also damson, fig, cassis and blackberry fruits, alongside muscular tannins. Fresh acidities through the finish keep a sense of momentum and this is powerful with ambition, and it carries it off perfectly. 65% of production went into the grand vin. 50% new oak (a little lower than the usual 60%).

Ekstremt steinete, kaffekake, tobakk, mørk bakst. Ekstremt pent strukturert, nydelig 17- utgave. 

Expert

Exceptional quality, silky tannins, cinammon, turmeric, cloves, grilled liqourice root, crushed rocks, almost seamless, so full of life and character, and brambled fruit. Chcooate, damson, so juicy and characterful, and singing of St Estèphe character, this is the appellation at its best. Decades ahead of it. Shame about the heavy bottle. 100% new oak.Michel Reybier owner, Aymeric de Gironde director (his last year in the role before heading over to Troplong Mondot).

A kick and a squeeze of brambled fruit sets the opening notes, and this captures the exuberance of the vintage, slowed down by a slate scrape expression of the tannins, together with cumin, cigar box, crayon and black pepper spice. Well judged, more luscious than many in this corner of the Médoc in 2015 and it works, delivering concentration and ageability. Scores higher than its 2014, unusually for St Estèphe. Michel Reybier owner, Aymeric de Gironde director.

🍇 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc

💨 Opened and decanted for 2 hours aeration.

🎨 Very deep ruby-red to dark purple color, almost opaque. 

👃🏼Complex and beautiful aroma of crushed blackcurrant, blackberry and cassis character on the nose, anchored by elegant oak, cedar, spices and tobacco with a hint of forest floor, graphite and aniseed in background.

👄 The wine has a bit more soften tannic at this stage since my first bottle, but not so intence as expected as they are very fine-grained which add precision and focus instead and seriously intense fruit and berry aromas and flavors. Extream powerfull and complex wine, full of energy that can stay in cellars for decades.

🎯 95/💯 points and 4.5 ⭐️

Amateur

The tannins maintain a firm grip on the frame, even a touch of youthful austerity which I have not found in many wines in the line up, this still feels like they can carry the cassis and blueberry fruit further. Edges of bitter chocolate, there is character to this wine, good quality, but abrupt on finish. Harvest 27 September and 10 October at 26.3hl/ha

The 2012 Cos d'Estournel is medium to deep garnet-purple colored. It features notes of mocha, cedar chest, and licorice over a core of warm cassis and blackberry preserves with a hint of wild sage. The medium-bodied palate has a chewy backbone of oak-inspired tannins with delicate fruit and an herbal, lifted finish.

Stands head and shoulders above the 2009 at this point, here you get the creaminess and power of a great vintage, with tannins that head towards monster-territory, and yet there is real delicacy and hidden complexity here, gorgeous quality, brilliant stuff, exoistc, incense , cinnamon; 100% new oak.

A wine that caused plenty of arguments among critics and wine lovers at the time, and 15 years on it remains full on and pumped up. Silky texture, smoked caramel, intense cracked pepper, cloves, incense, olive peel, blackberry and damson fruits, impactful but a little too much even now. The terroir character is just starting to assert itself, and this is a one point upscore since I tasted it at the ten years on point. 100% new oak.

A blend of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot, the 2006 Cos d’Estournel has a medium garnet color with a touch of brick. Slowly, it unfurls with soft-spoken scents of black raspberries, Morello cherries, and dried Provence herbs, plus touches of pencil shavings and fallen leaves. The medium-bodied palate is surprisingly youthful, with pleasantly chewy tannins and racy tension lifting the red berry and herbal flavors, finishing with a real skip in its step. Flirting with the crunchy side of ripeness, it’s aging slowly. Very nicely done!

Vibrant, with stately ruby red depths, touches of smoked oak, grilled cocoa bean and liqourice. This is powerful, with depths to the slate-strewn tannins. Tobacco, saffron, sage, crushed stones, baked earth, there is an opulent ripeness to the fruit, just on the precipice of tertiary. A lovely wine, big shouldered still with a few years before reaching its plateau. A few years ago I wrote of the Cos 2005, 'Good luck trying to predict when this wine will reach its end', and I still absolutely stand by that comment. 100% new oak.

Ruby red. Violets, cassis, licorice, anise, exotic and sweet pipe tobacco. Fresh acidity. Blueberries, cassis, licorice, anise, tobacco and spice. Polished tannins. Very long.

Composed of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc, the 2000 Cos d'Estournel has a medium brick color and a fragrant perfume of powdered cinnamon, incense, rose oil, and unsmoked cigars, leading to a core of dried cherries and mulberries with a touch of cardamom. The medium-bodied palate is elegantly crafted and silky with a refreshing line and perfumed finish. Very pretty and it’s drinking beautifully now!

Dette er hvorfor jeg elsker vin! 

Fyldig moden og kraftig BDX. Her får man alt man ønsker.  
Skogbunn og mørke frukt. Parfyme av tobakk, lakris og plomme

Tobakk, lær, kald kjeller, vanilje, søtlige plommer, anis, saltede kryddertoner, bjørnebær, solbær, modne moreller, og jordbær. Plukker samtidig opp noe grønt, chilli eller krydret paprika. 

Masse rød frukt på smak, jordbær, solbær og bjørnebær. Tobakk- preget henger elegant med. Nydelig struktur, høy konsentrasjon med lang finish. Tanninene er avslepne, men fortsatt merkbare. Syren er akk slik den skal være, og blendes godt inn i strukturen ved vinen sin helhet. 

Kan ligge lenger, men selvom så er drikke- gleden ekstrem. God jul!🍷🥰

Certified Sommelier

Masse frukt her fortsatt. Moden rips, skogsbær og solbær. Lær, tobakk, lakris og eukalyptus. Stor utvikling i glasset og over noen timer lufting. Strukturen er helt myk og tanninene fullstendig nedbrytt. På helt perfekt sted nå etter min mening. 

Fragrant floral notes, the most muscular of the two 1989s, with plenty of power. Cos is known for its exoticism, and a hot year like 1989 helps to draw ou that side of things, with fruitcake, olive tapenade, fennel and black pepper spices, and a smoky caramel edge to the finish. Plenty of St Estèphe signature, and a showcase for how Cabernet Sauvignon ages so slowly on these gravel-clay soils on the borders of Pauillac. Bruno Prats was owner at the time, as we are here a full 11 years before the arrival of Michel Reybier. Likely to have been over 50hl/h yield, as this was an extremely abundant years - and provided the highest natural (with no chaptilisation, which was common at the time) alcohol on record at the time. 100% new oak. There is a youthful feel to this Cos, but it is less nuanced than the Pavie (I would suggest choosing the 1990 Cos if given the choice between the two because, although not tasted here, I have found it to be a more consistent). Still plenty of life ahead, when it may gain extra complexity - never count these out.

En silkemyk krem av en vin. Mørke bær, mose og lær på nesen. Munnfylde lang vei og rett og slett en herlig opplevelse

Ekstremt ung vin for alderen. 
Bekmørk farge med duft av karamell og «lakris». 
Som sort kremfløte i munnen og en lang finish der tanninene slipper mens smaken holder ut. Overraskende bra igjen fra Cos

Særs overasket over at denne var livlig etter nesten 70 år!

Tasted at Lafite (alongside the Lafite Rothschild 1988, which was delicious but did not overshadow this amazing wine). Ethereal, if a wine can truly be described that way. Gossamer fine tannins, a blush of raspberry and blackberry fruits, giving way to undergrowth, white truffle, barely-there saffron and cold ash. It had been held in the cellars at Lafite for as long as the current generation can remember, so had not travelled more than 300m from its site of production. There is no realistic drink by date on this wine, and the blend is also unknown, although almost certainly dominant Cabernet Sauvignon (possibly with Malbec, Castet, Cabernet Franc alongside, perhas a trace of Merlot). The Basque Errazu family had been owners of Cos since just the year before, buying from London banker Charles-Cecil Martyns in 1869. I hardly need to add that the score means nothing - it is just a number to tell you that drinking this wine provided an exceptional moment in time.

Category	Red wine
Vinmonopolet no.
Producer	Ch. Cos d'Estournel
Vintages	2024
Country	France, Bordeaux, Saint-Estephe
Bottle	75 cl

Alcohol	%
Acid	%
Sugar	g/l

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