Winemaker Notes
Blend: 71% Sauvignon Blanc, 29% Sémillon
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of sliced pears, green apple, matchstick, and dried papaya follow through to a full body with a solid core of fruit and phenolics that give it structure and tightness. Slightly chewy at the end. Very structured. Give this time to open and show its true self.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The Grand Vin in white, the 2021 Château Cos D'Estournel Blanc includes slightly more Semillon and is 71% Sauvignon Blanc and 29% Semillon raised in 8% new barrels. It's a slightly more closed and tight white, revealing beautiful citrus fruit that gives way to more mint, floral, and chalky mineral-like nuances with air. Medium-bodied and balanced, it plays in the fresher style of the vintage but is still concentrated and serious, and it will benefit from a year or three of bottle age. It’s built for the cellar and will benefit from 2-3 years and drink well for at least a decade. This is 12.3% alcohol with a pH of 3.13.
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Decanter
Green apple skin, gooseberry and soft floral nuances. Lovely juicy core, high but balanced acidity gives the life while the toasted, quite bitter (grapefruit, orange, wood) elements come in towards the mid palate giving extra layers of nuance and depth and interest. It's not complete yet but good potential. Feels clean and precise and well worked. Maybe loses a touch of push and persistence on the finish, but there's nice purity and vibrancy from start to finish.
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Vinous
The 2021 Cos d'Estournel Blanc is a big wine—rich, dramatic and expressive. Low yields in 2021 created a white that is deep, layered and quite potent in feel. Tangerine peel, citrus confit, marzipan and a touch of new oak give the 2021 a decidedly flamboyant, extroverted personality. –Antonio Galloni
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Gently reductive aromas of pear, nectarine and gooseberry introduce the 2021 Cos d'Estournel Blanc, a medium to full-bodied, ample and satiny wine that's seamless and enveloping, with a bright spine of tangy acidity. As readers may remember, it's a blend of 71% Sauvignon Blanc and fully 29% Sémillon.
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Wine Spectator
Leads with tarragon and thyme notes, followed by lemon gelée and white peach flavors. Features a flash of apricot on the finish, giving this an unctuous feel. Flattering. Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.
Sometimes light and crisp, other times rich and creamy, Bordeaux White Blends typically consist of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Often, a small amount of Muscadelle or Sauvignon Gris is included for added intrigue. Popularized in Bordeaux, the blend is often mimicked throughout the New World. Somm Secret—Sauternes and Barsac are usually reserved for dessert, but they can be served before, during or after a meal. Try these sweet wines as an aperitif with jamón ibérico, oysters with a spicy mignonette or during dinner alongside hearty Alsatian sausage.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.