2014 Château Cos d’Estournel

Description

98    James Suckling
“If you want to know what St.-Estèphe smells like, this is it. Aromas of spices, black truffles, forest floor, dried strawberries and tar. It’s full-bodied yet pinpointed on the palate with fabulous density and richness. It’s opulent but in a reserved and checked way. This needs at least five or six years to come around, but it’s already fantastic. What harmony and structure. Try in 2022 if you can keep your hands off it! (2/2017)

97    Roger Voss for Wine Enthusiast – CELLAR SELECTION
“This is an immensely dense wine that is going to be a classic. The dark tannins are still lined with wood aging but that will go because the fruit underneath is also just as dense and intense. Blackberry, black plum and damson plum give power and sweetness. This is a great wine with huge potential. Drink from 2028.” (4/2017)

94    Neal Martin
“The 2014 Cos d’Estournel is destined to turn into a very lovely Saint Estèphe. This bottle was actually tasted over a period of a few hours. The word “cool” is one that reappeared in my vernacular now that the wine is in bottle. The estate is known for producing a more luxuriant and extravagant bouquet compared to its Saint Estèphe peers, yet this vintage is streamlined (to re-appropriate my original descriptor). It’s unashamedly focused and delineated.

It delivers intense blackberry and bilberry scents, again with a touch of iris. The palate is beautifully balanced with not a single hair out of place. The acidity is well judged and I noticed that after two or three hours, there was a faint vein of graphite that lends it a Pauillac-like personality, no surprise given that it lies just across the border. It will require several years in bottle for the tannins to mellow, but the result will be a very attractive, quite correct, fresh and precise Cos d’Estournel that will bestow two or three decades of drinking enjoyment. Tasted February 2017.” (3/2017)

94    James Molesworth for Wine Spectator
“Intense, with a roiling core of luscious loganberry, blackberry and black currant fruit. Singed spice, apple wood and black tea accents emerge steadily on the finish. Has a rare combination of density and precision. Will cruise in the cellar. Best from 2020 through 2035.” (3/2017)