TN: 1990 Château Cos d'Estournel (France, Bordeaux, Médoc, S

Eric_LeVine · May 15, 2010, 9:27pm

1990 Château Cos d’Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe (5/7/2010)
Delicious wine. Not profound but extremely enjoyable. Perfect cork. Chicken coop and tobacco assault you on the nose. The palate follows with a sweet core of ripe black, cherry, tobacco and a tinge of mint. Excellent mineral notes as well. (92 pts.)

Ed_Murray · May 15, 2010, 10:41pm

Chicken coop? Yikes! Our neighbors behind us (from 4th - 7th grade) had an egg farm. Thankfully there were 5 acres between us P-U!

I gotta admit, '90 Cos sounds really good right now.

Lance_Smith · May 16, 2010, 1:38am

Darn - I have a few of those and i was hoping they would be performing a bit better!

Eric_LeVine · May 16, 2010, 2:14am

No despair. It was darned good, just not life altering.

Lance_Smith · May 16, 2010, 2:38am

I like life altering! But I’ll take darn good just as well.

How do you compare to '96?

Eric_LeVine · May 16, 2010, 2:47am

I have only had the 96 once, and THAT was closer to life altering.

1996 Château Cos d’Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe (4/23/2007)
Dinner at Eleven Madison Park (New York, NY): Stalk and tar, a wine with great spine. Mmm, dynamic, chewy, some leather, graphite, gorgeous wine. A wonderful showing. I don’t drink a lot of Cos, but this taste and a recent taste of the 1982 makes me think I need to fix that. (96 pts.)

Looking back on my notes the one other time I had the 1990 back in 2007 I have it 94 points. The 1996 seems to be a step up. I LOOOOOVED the 1989 BTW, also a notch about the 1990.

Ed_Murray · May 16, 2010, 2:56am

The '96 is a stellar wine when it shows up , (which it has 3 of the 4 times that I’ve had it.)

Bob_Hughes · May 16, 2010, 3:33pm

I tend to think of the highlights of this vintage as being more right bank-oriented, but this is one of those consistent wines from the left bank that never seems to disappoint.

Ben_Giliberti · May 16, 2010, 8:14pm

I know that the 09 is controversial, but I’d have to say that Cos has really been firing on all cylinders lately. The 03 is other-worldly.

Chris_S_p_i_k_e_s · May 16, 2010, 11:40pm

I sure hope so. I put it away a couple of years ago, but I’m still sitting on 6 cases - hoping it never turns to plonk! My plan is to open another bottle around 2013, then assuming it’s drinking like I expect, next stop will be 2020.

Chris

jon_leifer · May 17, 2010, 3:24am

The 89 Cos d’Estournel has been my favorite from this very reliable producer…still have a few bottles left from a case I bought on release… Had a bottle of the 90 Cos Labory with dinner tonight, …a nice wine but kind of one dimensional and probably didn’t warrant cellaring…cost a lot less , if I recall, and definitely not in the same league as the 90 Cos d"Estournel.

Doug_Lee · May 17, 2010, 2:27pm

Had this in eighteen months ago and gave it a similar rating, thinking it just needed more time. Looking forward to the 1996, especially with Eric’s review.

Cheers,
Doug