TN: 2001 Château Cos d'Estournel (France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe)

2001 Château Cos d’Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe (10/21/2016)
Perfect cork, just a dark rim at the bottom, very youthful dark garnet color; the nose is beautiful, with light cedar, leather, then gorgeous dark, meaty fruit, some background oak, deep black currant, hints of roasted mushroom and creosote, good acidity, just perceptible fine tannins. Medium-full body, classy, elegant, still on its upslope nowhere near peak but drinking wonderfully. So sad they don’t make wine like this any more.

Finished the bottle the next day, and it was essentially unchanged, held up beautifully just recorked on the counter. (94 pts.)

Yum, thanks Alan I haven’t tried this year of Cos.

In terms of not making wine like this any more – seems like there’s plenty of availability of this wine/vintage and similar level Bordeaux producers in the market. Certainly not at pre-release pricing from 2002 (and I really don’t want to hear what it was! agh!). But – lots of this and similar bottles can be found.

And there must be somebody making wine like this in 2016?

One of these days I’ll bring an 85 or 86 to one of our offlines.

Thanks for the note Alan. I have a couple of these buried someplace. The 2004 is also very fine. I haven’t had the “new and improved” Cos, and I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be a fan

I like 2001 and 2002 very much. I recently had the 2003, and actually enjoyed it more than expected. Now granted, it was during a business function at a big steak house and we had other big Cabs at the table. In that context, it was in check!

2001 Cos is a beautiful wine. Had it few years ago.

My co-WOTY last year. This wine really stood out.

There was also a 40 year old Graham’s Tawny that actually would have dated back to coming out of about the 1970 vintage. That was nectar of the gods, but that is another story.