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  • Country ranking ?

    1 142
  • Producer ranking ?

    31
  • Decanting time

    1h
  • When to drink

    Now
  • Food Pairing

    Beef

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The Story

The call of faraway lands. As mysterious and intriguing as a lone adventurer returning from a solitary sail, Cos d’Estournel is slow to reveal itself. Little by little, it evokes stories of distant places, market stalls brimming with unfamiliar fruits, spices and wares, village festivities warmed by the joy of revelers and the setting sun, and sumptuous visions of ladies and their voluptuous curves. A myriad of scents, colors and tastes appeals to the senses. The Grand Vin of Cos d’Estournel is both demure and deliberately sensuous, a fascinating and elegant nectar.

The vineyard of Cos spreads around the château on 91 hectares.The Cabernet Sauvignon vines (60% of the vineyard) find the soil of their choice in the thin layers of gravely soil situated on the top and on the southern slopes of the hill. On the other hand, the Merlot vines (40% of the vineyard) excel on the eastern slopes and on the slopes where the Saint-Estephe limestone bed shows on the surface.

The percentage of Cabernet and Merlot varies from one vintage to another according to the year weather conditions, benefiting successively to the one or the other. Plantation is extremely dense (8000 to 10000 vines per hectare) and the average age of the vineyard is high (35 years old on the average) in order to enable the roots to extend excessively and to obtain a very slender yield per vine that will create the « Grand Goût »

Each vine grower is in charge of 45 000 vines on which they have got to undertake various labours every year. These cultural tasks are for most of them done manually. The harvest is of course manually picked too. And it is by hand that the grapes, once collected in special wooden baskets, will be strictly selected.

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Vintage 1985

Bordeaux 1985/ An extraordinary vintage. Particularly elegant in their early years, these wines are now mellow and suave with considerable finesse. The Médoc wines, supple with mellow tannins, are deliciously soft and fruity. The Pomerols and Saint Emilions possess a marvellous combination of concentration and finesse. The dry white wines are rich and complex. The sweet wines are ample, honeyed and fruity.

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Written Notes

My first Bordeaux vintage to be experienced live on-site in September 1985. Perfect sunny weather through the harvest. Despite huge yields, the wines from this vintage have kept exceptionally well. It was called a feminine vintage by several wine critics, but it’s not entirely correct, imho. Cos expressed this vintage's grace, elegance and sweetness beautifully but the power as well.  Roasted bacon, milky, black winter truffles, sensual, great acidity, bright complexity, sophisticated touch and long lingering aftertaste. I had a slightly better example of this wine in 2015, but no complaints here!

  • 96p

Ruby, garnet rim. Bottle bought new en primeur by owner. Dark fruits, light herbal touch, spicy and vanilla, not that elegant. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, bit hollow, there is fruit here but it lacks nuance, fairly refreshing. 88

  • 88p
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Information

Origin

St-Estèphe, Bordeaux
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