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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.