Cos D’Estournel 2014

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

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.

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