x
  • Country ranking ?

    1 128
  • Producer ranking ?

    30
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    now to 2030
  • Food Pairing

    duck filet with cinnamon biscuit and onion confit

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Wine Advocate - Robert Parker - October 1994

95 Points "Tasted 7 Times Since Bottling With Consistent Notes. The 1986 is a highly extracted wine, with a black/ruby color and plenty of toasty, smoky notes in its bouquet that suggest ripe plums and licorice. Evolving at a glacial pace, it exhibits massive, huge, ripe, extremely concentrated flavors with impressive depth and richness. Anticipated maturity: 1996-2010."

 

Wine Spectator - May 1989

93 Points "Smells terrific, with great concentration of berry and cassis aromas, but the prominent tannins tend to cover the flavors, requiring cellaring until at least 1995. On balance, the concentration of fruit wins in the end."

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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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Wine Information

A vintage marked by a great lack of water in summer and by harvesting carried out in ideal conditions.

A very intense colour, hardly developed. A complex bouquet which reveals little; spices, liquorice, cedar wood. The structure of delicate tannins is enormous, the flesh is full and rich. Very long in the mouth. A virile wine, a wine with a future which can develop in the cellar over many long years, but which may, even so, be drunk as from today.

68% cabernet sauvignon
2% merlot – 90% new oak barrels

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Tasting note

color

Full

ending

Long and Lingering

flavors

Plum, Smoky, Cedar, Leather, Earthy and Tobacco

nose

Intense

recommend

Yes

taste

Balanced, Complex, Medium-bodied, Harmonious, Rich and Ripe

Written Notes

The 1986 Cos d’Estournel had much more peanut brittle in the nose, along with coffee, spice, candle wax and beef. The palate was nutty and quite gamy for a Left Banker, with a pinch of sugar dropped in. It was toasty up front, but waxy on its finish. Lots of minerals and cigar lingered, and it was hailed as ‘rich and dense’ (94).
  • 94p
The year 1986 really beat all previous records. July and August were warm and extremely dry. It was not until September 23rd when the sky opened and the downpour caused damage in the areas of Bordeaux, Libourne and Graves in particular. The rain only briefly touched the northern Médoc area. The problem with the vintage was the quality of the Merlot grapes because their taste was diluted, partly by the exceedingly large harvest and partly by the rain. The vineyards that had the patience to wait for the ripening of the Cabernet Sauvignon were rewarded. The weather continued to be good and dry, and the harvesting could be carried out without interruption in ideal conditions. Fine bottle with perfect level. Decanted two hours. Moderately intense, cherry red colour. Developing nose with earthiness, leather, dried herbs, and hints of volatile balsamic aromas. A rich medium-bodied wine with markedly ripe tannins, very balanced acidity combining harmoniously with the ripe fruitiness of plums and smokiness from new oak. The cedar and tobacco leaf flavours are standing out. Long lingering finish with ripe intense fruitiness and minerality. Drinking perfectly now but can still age another 5-7 years.
  • 94p

After a solar 1985, everything returned to a more classic Bordeaux style in 1986. Cos was a traditional St.Estephe wine with a lot to offer. Full-bodied, big fruit intensity, mineral, wet earth.  Cabernet Sauvignon in full blossom, great structure and midpalate. Vibrant. Long meaty finish. Many years to go.

  • 95p

Neck fill. Ruby, garnet rim, tender nose, well, maybe not tender, but subdued and discreet, especially considering newer vintages of Cos. Opens up, getting richer, fresh acidity, ripe tannins, needed air to open, gives a punch, has everything but could have been longer. Would have been nice to let a bottle sit for longer in the glass. A fine Cos. 93

  • 93p
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Information

Origin

St-Estèphe, Bordeaux

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

No Potential

Fake factory

None
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