Cos d'Estournel 2009

The wine in this vintage

A warm, sunny and generous vintage, 2009 gave Bordeaux opulent, ripe wines, and Saint-Estèphe, with its cooler soils, achieved a particularly happy balance. Cos d'Estournel 2009 is one of the estate's most celebrated wines, awarded 100 points by Robert Parker. In the glass it is dark and concentrated, with cassis, blackberry, plum, dark chocolate, liquorice, exotic spice and a touch of graphite; the palate is broad and powerful, with a dense yet velvety tannic frame and a very long finish. Despite the richness of its fruit, the 2009 is still a young, imposing wine: it needs more time to integrate its structure and reveal tertiary nuances, and it will amply repay the wait.

The producer · Château Cos d'Estournel

Recognisable from afar by its Oriental-style pagodas, Château Cos d'Estournel is the great reference point of Saint-Estèphe and one of the most admired Second Growths of the 1855 Classification. The estate was created in 1811 by Louis-Gaspard d'Estournel, a visionary horse and wine trader who shipped his reds as far as India, hence the exotic charm of its architecture. The vineyards occupy the hill of Cos, a gravel ridge facing Château Lafite Rothschild across the border with Pauillac, and are planted mainly with Cabernet Sauvignon, alongside Merlot and small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Since 2000 the estate has belonged to Michel Reybier, who invested in a state-of-the-art gravity-flow winery. The Cos d'Estournel style combines the power and structure typical of Saint-Estèphe with aromatic richness and tannic refinement, making it one of the longest-lived and most sought-after wines of the Left Bank.

Critics' scores

• 100 Robert Parker
• 95 Wine Enthusiast
• 18/20 Jancis Robinson

Technical details

Producer

Château Cos d'Estournel

Region

Bordeaux

Country

Francia

Type

Rosso

Vintage

2009

When to drink

Not yet at its peak

Critics' average

97.5/100

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0160109