2023 Cos d'Estournel, St Estèphe, Bordeaux

65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot. 53% of the production. Cask sample.

Deep purple-black hue. Aromatic and exotic with spice and chocolate notes. Smooth attack then long and persistent. Plenty of freshness. Structured but slightly dry and chewy on the finish at the moment. Clear ageing potential.

Drink 2032 - 2050

The 2023 Cos d'Estournel, picked from September 12 to 29 and matured in 50% new oak, blossoms in the glass. The aromatics deliver nearly immediate gratification: black cherries, wild strawberries, crushed violet petals and vanilla pod. It’s all quite sumptuous but very well focused. The palate is medium-bodied with finely chiseled, slightly powdery tannins. It’s beautifully balanced with a very pure and seductive finish. This is a notably composed and assured Cos d'Estournel, almost a lesson in how less can be more. It’s only a couple of steps behind the previous vintage.

Drink 2033 - 2065

A contemporary classic in the making, the 2023 Cos d'Estournel has turned out beautifully, reflecting a lighter touch with extraction that has delivered more sensuality and harmony without the loss of any of the estate's signature power and authority. Wafting from the glass with deep aromas of cassis, wild berries, orange zest and exotic spices, framed by well-integrated new wood, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with a concentrated core of fruit, beautifully suave tannins and a cool, seamless profile. It's a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot that attained 12.9% alcohol and is being matured in 50% new oak.

The 2023 Cos d'Estournel is deep garnet-purple in color. Energetic notes of cassis, wild blueberries, and fresh juicy raspberries pop from the glass, giving way to underlying hints of rose oil, black pepper, and anise. The light to medium-bodied palate is taut with tightly wound, shiny black and red berry layers, framed by firm grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing long and minerally. The blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petit Verdot, with pH 3.75 and TPI 72.

Drink 2029 - 2050

The Grand Vin 2023 Château Cos D'Estournel checks in as 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, and a splash of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, resting in 50% new French oak. This beauty brings everything up a notch, with awesome crème de cassis, graphite, violets, spicy oak, and chocolate-driven aromatics. Rich, full-bodied, and beautifully textured, it has the fresher yet ripe style of the vintage, beautiful tannins, integrated acidity, and a great finish. It's a beautifully elegant yet powerful wine in the making from this team.

The 2023 Cos d’Estournel is fabulous. Dark, resonant and inviting, the 2023 has so much to offer. All the elements are beautifully woven together. Black cherry, plum, licorice, espresso, mocha and incense fill out the layers. Readers will find a Cos endowed with tremendous substance and intensity. I can't remember a young Cos with this much fruit concentration, yet there is nothing overdone here. I loved it.

Drink 2033 - 2063

Some herbal touches on the nose with dark chocolate, a little exotic with quite dark ripe blackcurrants. Expressive and alive in the glass, weighty and smooth, a great texture and structure to this, more fleshy and ripe than I was expecting with a mineral undercurrent. Lots going on here, less showy as the fruit subsides and leaves some grippy, powdery tannins that linger. Still serious and needs time to come together, a little quiet and intense on the finish. Not so much overt acidity, more power and structure at this point. First time green harvesting since 2008. 12% press wine, less than in 2022. Shorter maceration in 2023, 23 days compared to 28-30 at cooler temperatures. Ageing 50% new oak. In organic conversion. 53% grand vin, 47% second wine. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend.

Drink 2031 - 2050

The finesse is pretty phenomenal here, with such complexity of fruit and vivid, bright flowers. Lavender and rose. Seductive. Ever-so long and precise. Lead pencil and graphite. Reminiscent of old, great Cos, such as 1955 or 1982, but with so much more form and modernity. A renaissance of Cos. 65% cabernet sauvignon, 33% merlot, 1% cabernet franc and 1% petit verdot.

Step into Cos d'Estournel, with its richness, depths and layers of cocoa bean, liquorice, espresso, chocolate, exceptional chewiness on the tannins, making things fairly serious at this early stage, with a promise of slow-revealed pleasure over the decades ahead. First time doing green harvest in the vineyards since 2008, causing some worries over the late heat waves on already ripening grapes, but they have retained balanced alchols here, and there is plenty of juice to lift things up on the finish. Harvest September 12 to 29 last year finished September 22). 50% new oak for ageing, 53% 1st wine. In organic conversion that began in 2021, but have had to extend after addition of a few more plots to the vineyard).

Drink 2032 - 2050