CHÂTEAU COS D'ESTOURNEL

The richness and beauty of this wine is impressive with blackcurrant, cherry, berry and fresh cloves. The fruit is so pure here. Full-bodied with tannins that are so integrated and refined that you don’t feel them, yet they are there! Very creamy and layered with great length and beauty. It turns to tar and licorice at the finish. Tight now, but the texture is special. Try after 2027. Rating: 98 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Feb 2021)

This is a bird of a different feather, with a ripe, sleek, and very polished feel as creamed loganberry, plum and boysenberry flavors spill forth, flanked for support by singed alder and incense notes, while black tea and savory threads curl around the finish. Long, showy and lovely. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Drinking range: 2024 - 2038 Rating: 96 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Jan 2021)

Deeply colored, the 2018 Cos D'Estournel shows the incredible purity and elegance that this estate delivers these days as well as fabulous crème de cassis, graphite, white flowers, and spicy oak aromas and flavors. Made from 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot, aging in 50% new barrels, it builds with time in the glass and has a full-bodied, decadent yet also seamless mouthfeel, layers of tannins, and a great finish. This is as classy as it gets and certainly a candidate for the King of Saint-Estèphe in 2018. Given its purity and balance as well as depth of fruit, it should offer loads of pleasure in its youth yet also evolve nicely for 3-4 decades. This estate has been on an incredible roll over the past 7-8 years and this is another killer wine. For those interested in the technical data, this wine hit 14.59% alcohol, with a pH of 3.69, total acids of 3.3, and a whopping IPT of 80. Rating: 97-99 Jeb Dunnuck, www.jebdunnuck.com (May 2019)

Black core with narrow purple rim. Intense black fruit with just a hint of charry oak. Smells sweet and ripe but pure and fresh-fruited too. Glorious Cabernet here. Deep, chewy and rich on the palate, firm velvet texture, incredibly moreish and so fresh, as much from the tannins as from the acidity. Leaves your mouth clean with dark, savoury, rocky length. Very precise winemaking. I love those dry clean-tasting tannins on the finish. Drinking range: 2028 - 2045 Rating: 17.5 Julia Harding MW, www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2019)

The 2018 Cos d'Estournel is composed of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc and has 14.59% alcohol. Aging in 50% new barriques, it has a deep purple-black color and drifts effortlessly, gracefully, seductively out of the glass with slowly unfurling notions of blackcurrant cordial, wild blueberries, chocolate-covered cherries and plum pudding with touches of violets, licorice, wild roses and yeast extract plus a waft of loose tobacco. The full-bodied palate is built like a brick house with a solid frame of super firm, super ripe tannins and seamless freshness to back up the vibrant, crunchy, oh-so-muscular fruit, finishing long with loads of mineral layers. Amazing structure will keep this beauty for at least half a century and probably a full one! Rating: 97-100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown, RobertParker.com (Apr 2019)

The beautiful integration of ripe fruit and ripe tannins gives the wine a layered and agile mouthfeel. Soft and gorgeous with silky tannins that really kick in at the finish and carry the wine for a long time. Rating: 98-99 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2019)

This has some austerity on the attack, then announces its arrival in the inimitable way that Cos is able to do: with a slow build up of exotic spices, liquorice root, cedar and cassis. It stretches out through the palate and you keep waiting for the tannins to punch through like they did in 2010, but it doesn't happen, even though this is a big wine with high alcohol and an IPT of 80. There's a great menthol freshness on the finish, helped no doubt by a fresh 3.65pH. It has the luxurious signature of Cos, the glamorous touch that you look for in this wine - like at Mouton and at Angelus - that is part of their DNA, but it's also married to elegance and a touch of slate minerality. This is a wine that you would be thrilled to own. 12mm of rain on 12 September and 20mm in mid-August were just enough to stop any blockages in ripening, although the 30hl/ha yield is low due to a touch of mildew and some concentration in September. This compares to a more generous 45hl/ha in 2016. 65% of production went into the grand vin. 1% Petit Verdot makes up the blend, and the wine is aged in 50% new oak (a little lower than the usual 60%). A candidate to upscore when in bottle. Drinking range: 2028 - 2042 Rating: 97 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2019)

The grand vin took 65% of the crop, from a yield of just 30 hl/ha. The assemblage is 74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and 1% Petit Verdot. Picking began here on September 19th, finishing October 6th. Of the three top growths in St Estèphe this registers the lowest alcohol, at 14.59%, with a pH of 3.69. It presents a simply divine aromatic precision, the nose filled with the scents of crisp black plum and floral notes reminiscent of violets. There is a polished texture at the start of the palate, with flavours of plum cream, liquorice, creamed blackcurrant and damson fruits, with a floral energy. This is simply beautiful, brightly defined fruit with an open floral lift, fresh and bright, with such great energy. A pure, cool, lightly mineral style, with such fine elegance and also a very fine sinewy concentration, with perfectly judged grip. A very complete wine, so textured, long, savoury and poised in the finish. This is a divinely magnificent Cos d'Estournel which presents the substance of the vintage framed with precision in the best way possible. Rating: 98-100 Chris Kissack, www.thewinedoctor.com (Apr 2019)

Big, rich and smoky in nature, with powerful fruits and dense tannins, this is a wine that is straining at the limits but still within balance. Rich, smoky flavors shine along with the black plum fruit and bright acidity. It will age for many years. Rating: 96 Roger Voss, Wine Enthusiast www.winemag.com (Apr 2019)