Are some 1998 Cos d'Estournel slightly tainted ???

WINE TALK
1

Two weeks ago, I double-decanted several wines and traveled to Charlottesville, Va to belatedly celebrate a mentor’s/collaborator’s B-day. While the '99 Delas Freres Bessards and '95 G Conterno Francia were wonderful, my '98 Cos appeared to be ever so slightly tainted. headbang The taint didn’t seem to be persistent so I wasn’t absolutely certain about my inference – except for the fact that my previous bottle (a year or more ago) left me with the very same impression. [shock.gif] So I uncorked yet another today and it, too, seems slightly tainted (by some sort of halogenated anisole to this AMATEUR’S taste buds at least). Being extremely intrigued by this topic, I googled “Cos d’Estournel AND 1998 AND corked” and the following CellarTracker hits surfaced:

1998 Château Cos d'Estournel, France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe - CellarTracker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tasted by WST on 7/28/2008 flawed bottle: > mildly corked> , with some brett adding to the off-putting nose. Nothing like the last two bottles. (1694 views)

FWIW, for those of you that may have multiple bottles of '98 Cos, you might wish to check in to see if anything might be amiss.
Just sayin…

2

Of course some are slightly tainted. Others are horribly tainted, while still others are probably just fine. After all, they are sealed with a cork.

If you mean to ask is there a systemic issue with 1998 Cos, then your own link to CT seems to suggest no, since there are 39 tasting notes, only one of which is corked, one other cooked. Sorry your’s weren’t good, but probably luck of the draw.

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I’ve only had 1999’s and those both were barnyard freak-fests. Felt like I was on a ranch in both cases.

Did both of your bottles come from the same case? (i.e., do you have a full case of 1998’s or did you grab from the same lot?)

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Two if not all three bottles probably did come from the same case. And I have another unopened single bottle that probably came from a different retailer.