CHATEAU COS D'ESTOURNEL 2eme Grand Cru Classe, Saint-Estephe 2019 Bottle

Description

The 2019 Château Cos d'Estournel is an impressive Bordeaux, showcasing a deep core of blackcurrant, blackberry, and ripe plum, enhanced by notes of cedar, vanilla, and exotic spices. This vintage balances richness and precision, featuring velvety tannins and a long, lingering finish, making it delightful for immediate enjoyment or cellaring for future complexity. It has garnered high acclaim, earning 99 points from James Suckling for its aromatic qualities and structure, while Decanter awarded 98 points for its velvety texture and depth. Wine Enthusiast rated it 98 points for its stylish black fruit flavors. The Wine Advocate scored it 97+ points for its polished character, and both Vinous and Jancis Robinson acknowledged its potential for long aging, affirming its status as a standout Saint-Estèphe.

*****

JAMES SUCKLING 99 points
This is so aromatic with blackcurrants, black berries and raspberries. Pure fruit, together with coffee and nutmeg. Really fresh and clean with bright spices. Full-bodied, yet reserved and tight with fantastic structure. So long. This is a great Cos for the cellar. A real benchmark for the true character. Needs at least five or six years to open and come around. Try after 2029.

DECANTER 98 points
Tasted by Jane Anson at Bordeaux, 30 May 2020
Part of Best St Estèphe 2019 wines tasted en primeur
Powerful and enjoyable Cos. Needs to be given time in the glass to reveal the impressively velvety texture, and the sheer depth of bitter black chocolate, black truffle and coffee notes. The tannins sit back and then build slowly to full bristling impact by the close of play. Feels extremely sophisticated, with the always-present Cos glamour. This was a vintage where the heat was starting to be worrying until the September rains that began around 22nd, and helped bring the Cabernet back into a more classical line, and away from the extremes of 2018. A final yield of 40hl/ha.
Drinking Window 2027 - 2044

WINE ENTHUSIAST 98 points
Gone are the days when this illustrious estate produced the most powerful wine possible. This new release is stylish and packed with great black fruits. Some dark chocolate flavors add density while keeping the wine's perfume and blackberry flavors. It is impressive, likely ready to drink from 2026. — Roger Voss

THE WINE ADVOCATE 97+ points
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Drink Date: 2027 - 2055
The 2019 Cos d'Estournel has turned out brilliantly, exhibiting aromas of minty cassis, sweet wild berries and wild plums mingled with hints of spices, loamy soil and potpourri. Full-bodied, broad and enveloping, it's polished and seamless, its ample chassis of fine, velvety tannin entirely concealed in its deep core of succulent, crunchy fruit. Beautifully integrated at this early stage, the last decade has witnessed a number of changes at this address, including a trend toward less aggressively late picking, cooler fermentations and élevage with fewer rackings and more moderate percentages of less heavily toasted new oak: in 2019, the results speak for themselves.

VINOUS 97 points
The 2019 Cos d'Estournel was picked from September 23 to October 7 at 43hL/ha, matured in a judicious 55% new oak, and bottled in July 2021 by gravity. It is more backward on the nose, and there’s nothing wrong with that for a Grand Vin. Biding its time, it opens to deliver lovely, very pure scents of blackberry, raspberry coulis and touches of graphite and violet, the latter having developed during barrel maturation. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, and the texture is a little more crunchy than when tasted from barrel sample. Gone is the silkiness; in its place there is backbone and grip, features that will stand this Cos d’Estournel in good stead for considerable cellar aging. It displays more classicism in bottle compared to barrel, and exhibits more Saint-Estèphe DNA. - Neal Martin

JANCIS ROBINSON 18+points
Drink: 2030 - 2050
65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot. Barrel sample.
Deep colour to the rim. Huge concentration of dark fruit with a notable Cabernet cassis aroma. Mighty tannic build but very fine tannins. Layers of fruit. Powerful but carefully constructed and precise. A lovely mellow quality to such a muscular wine. Plenty of reserve and clearly for long ageing. (JL)