Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Classic Cos with so much spice and fruit, yet refined and sexy. Powerful with super silky tannins. Full bodied, yet incredibly compacted. This is so tight and rich with layers of fruit and tannins and a finish that last for minutes on the palate. I asked the head of Cos, Jean-Guillaume Prats, what the alcohol on the wine was, and he said 14.8% alcohol and 3.58 pH. Fab. Try after 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Blended of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc, the deep garnet-purple colored 2009 Cos d'Estournel takes a little coaxing to encourage the full array of exotic spices and decadent black fruits to emerge here: crème de cassis, baked plums, blueberry compote and Black Forest cake intermingled with star anise, fenugreek, cumin seed and Sichuan pepper plus wafts of menthol, violets and smoked meats. Wow—the full-bodied palate bursts with powerful, hedonic black fruit preserves and spices, completely coating the mouth with decadent fruits that are perfectly framed by very firm yet very ripe, grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing with a veritable firework display of floral, spice and red fruit notes. Just stunning.
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Wine Spectator
This is a stunner, with gloriously ripe, succulent cassis, blackberry and fig fruit flavors backed by extra notes of plum cake, blueberry confiture and roasted wood spice. On the back half, the iron spine takes over on the hard-driving and extremely long anise- and incense-tinged finish. An awesome expression of the modern style. Best from 2020 through 2040.
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Wine Enthusiast
A hugely rich wine, where the tannins seem initially lost in the overwhelming fruit. It has power and concentration, showing its alcohol a little. There is great intensity, but a taste like super-ripe Zinfandel, from the very ripe fruit.–R.V.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 Points
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
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.