MI Wine Club does Cos d'Estournel
Seattle, WA, USA
Tasted Tuesday, June 22, 2004 by Eric with 2,308 views
Introduction
James King hosted a tasting of the Mercer Island Wine Club featuring a 6-vintage vertical of Château Cos d'Estournel at his home. I had never actually tasted a Cos before this tasting, so I was eager to attend. Looking back, it was an education tasting with some solid wines, but I think it suffered a little bit from focusing on weaker vintages. Nearly all of the bottles were in excellent shape with very sound corks (the 1981 was the only base-neck fill and a somewhat wet cork). However, the 2000 really towered about the rest of the wines, and in time I think the gap will be even larger. It will be interesting in a decade to repeat this and compare 1990, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Clearly this is a Château showing a strong resurgence in recent vintages. (All wines were served single-blind. I guessed 4 of the 6 vintages correctly, transposing 1971 and 1975.)
1971 Château Cos d'Estournel 91 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
I transposed this with the 1975 in my vintage guess, as this showed more impressive structure. Very brick in color with a watery rim. The nose show mint, iron and cedar. The palate initially has a saline quality, but more sweetness emerged with some air. The finish shows mouthwatering acidity. This was my 2nd favorite of the night (to the 2000) from an excellent bottle with an extremely sound cork.
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1975 Château Cos d'Estournel 88 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
The nose on this was slightly musty and tired smelling. However, for everything the nose lacked, the palate was extremely vibrant and alive with impressive acidity. There is still some tannin to resolve here, but there is less fruit. Drink up.
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1981 Château Cos d'Estournel 88 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
The nose shows heavy barnyard with some spicy cinnamon, definitely the best nose of the older wines. The palate started out somewhat dilute, but with air it filled out considerably. However, my main challenge with this wine was a very astringent, pronounced, and bitter note on the back of the palate. This still has structure to shed, but the fruit is fading. This was my third favorite of the night and was somewhat charming despite the astringency.
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1993 Château Cos d'Estournel Flawed
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
The nose was herbal and minty, but alas, it also showed TCA. The palate confirmed that the wine was corked, as it was completely stripped of fruit and astringent. On the finish there was bitter chocolate with a lot of structure. Not rated.
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1999 Château Cos d'Estournel 85 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
The nose shows heavy barrel toast with lots of charcoal smells followed by some charming notes of tobacco. The palate is similarly very roasted with bitter espresso, tobacco and some red fruit peeking out in the background. The finish was tart and short. Maybe this one is closed up, but mainly it just showed way more wood than fruit. I'm not too confident that this will turn out well.
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2000 Château Cos d'Estournel 94 Points
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe
For me this was the obvious standout of the evening, although it was not actually the favorite wine of about half the group. The color was nearly black. The nose showed saturated, crushed berry with present yet well-integrated wood (this was in vivid contrast to the 1999). Initially this was VERY tight (the wine only had 30 minutes of air) and showed massive structure with a finish that went on and on and on. However, with 30 minutes of air this started to open like crazy and show gobs of vivid black fruit. This wine has a very bright and exciting future ahead of it!
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