2005 Chateau Cos d’Estournel 2eme Cru Classe, Saint-Estephe 1x750ml

Robert Parker 98

The 2005 Cos d’Estournel is blended of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet colored, it is still a little closed and youthfully shy. With coaxing, the nose is just beginning to offer glimpses at vivacious kirsch, red roses, violets, licorice and mocha scents over a creme de cassis, blackberry pie and chocolate-covered cherry core with wafts of chargrill, mossy bark and truffles. Full-bodied, concentrated and wonderfully complex in the mouth, the palate is just beginning to reveal the true potential of this wine, with tightly wound layers of perfumed black fruits and earthy notions bound by a rock-solid frame of firm, grainy tannins and finishing with epic persistence. This still needs 5-6 years, but I love how this beauty is shaping up!! [Lisa Perrotti-Brown, 30/11/2018]

Anticipated maturity: 2018-2045

Vinous 94-96

Deep ruby-red. Highly complex nose melds black fruits, leather, game and minerals; very ripe but with real sap. Large-scaled, lush and rich, with a silkiness of texture that’s rare even in the 2005 vintage. A compellingly sweet and broad but firmly built wine of great class. Expands to saturate the entire palate on the back, with substantial but noble tannins arriving late. I could drink this outstanding wine right now, but this will surely shut down in bottle in the next couple of years. Jean-Guillaume Prats ranks the 2005 with 2003 and 1982 as the greatest vintages of the last generation here, but notes that the crop level in 2005 was barely half that of 1982. [Stephen Tanzer, 05/01/2007]