Majestic, intense, full-bodied and tannic, Cos d’Estournel is considered the leading wine of St Estèphe. Highly tannic in its youth, over time it develops much much like the great wines of adjoining Pauillac.
Cos d’Estournel is considered the leading wine of St Estèphe.
The wine is typically a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc, consistently displaying immense power and evident breed.
'If you want to know what St.-Estèphe smells like, this is it. Aromas of spices, black truffles, forest floor, dried strawberries and tar. It’s full-bodied yet pinpointed on the palate with fabulous density and richness. It’s opulent but in a reserved and checked way. This needs at least five or six years to come around, but it’s already fantastic. What harmony and structure. Try in 2022 if you can keep your hands off it!'
98 points, James Suckling
'The 2014 Cos d'Estournel is destined to turn into a very lovely Saint Estèphe. This bottle was actually tasted over a period of a few hours. The word "cool" is one that reappeared in my vernacular now that the wine is in bottle. The estate is known for producing a more luxuriant and extravagant bouquet compared to its Saint Estèphe peers, yet this vintage is streamlined (to re-appropriate my original descriptor). It's unashamedly focused and delineated. It delivers intense blackberry and bilberry scents, again with a touch of iris. The palate is beautifully balanced with not a single hair out of place. The acidity is well judged and I noticed that after two or three hours, there was a faint vein of graphite that lends it a Pauillac-like personality, no surprise given that it lies just across the border. It will require several years in bottle for the tannins to mellow, but the result will be a very attractive, quite correct, fresh and precise Cos d'Estournel that will bestow two or three decades of drinking enjoyment. Tasted February 2017.'
94 points, Neal Martin - Robert Parker.
Saint -Estèphe, with 1,377 hectares under vine is the largest of the major Bordeaux appellations in the Medoc. Located in the most northern part of the Left Bank, on average, 585,000 cases of wine are produced each year. The soils see a rich mixture of rocks, clay, limestone and gravel that rests on the surface and of course below, deep in the terroir. Beneath the surface lies a complex blend of different soils, sub soils and terroir. Over the past several decades, the general trend in the Saint -Estèphe vineyards has been to add more Merlot, which has added a lot of softness to the tannins and the wines. Merlot works well in the appellation due to the large amount of clay found in the soils. in the appellation due to the large amount of clay found in the soils.
