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News
Cos d’Estournel 2019 has been released at €110 per bottle ex-negociant, down 23.6% on the 2018(€144).
The wine is being offered by the trade at £1,368 per 12×75, a decrease of 23% on the 2018 release of £1,776 per case.
It comes with an international recommended price tag of 1100 HK, 139 CHF, 153 USD, 15 840 JPY. It has been reported that the chateau will be donating €1 for each bottle sold to the hospitality industry.
Yields for the 2019 were 43 hectoliters per hectare.
Cos d’Estournel is among James Suckling’s top scoring Bordeaux 2019 wines, with a barrel range of 98-99 points. For Suckling, this is a “very powerful and structured Cos”. The wine also received 96 points from Jean-Marc Quarin. Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW (Wine Advocate) awarded it 97-99+ and called it a “vinous masterpiece in the making”. She also revealed that the wine “came in at an alcohol level of 14.02%” – a level which would make it exempt from the 25% US tariffs.
As the chart below shows, a score of 96 by Neal Martin would make the wine sit on the ‘Fair Value’ line. Any higher, and the wine would represent good value for money. Depending on the critic of choice, buyers might already be tempted by this purchase.
Looking back the 2014 looks attractive, with 96 points from Martin, six years in bottle and at 30% discount to today’s release (£970 per 12×75). The physical 100-point 2016 can also be bought at a small 11% premium
Wine Description
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.
Wine Information
Silky, delicate and immensely profound, the 2019 vintage embodies the quintessence of Cos d’Estournel. Multi-faceted, it delivers aromas of cinnamon and jasmine alongside fine mineral notes and a touch of spice that perfectly structures the wine through its finish. A dazzling expression of the estate’s terroir, exceptional and full of grace, Cos d’Estournel 2019 is an alluring vintage with universal appeal that promises many wonderful years of cellaring.
Blend: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot
The Barrel Sample for this wine is above 14% ABV.
Vintage 2019
BORDEAUX 2019 VINTAGE
When I was visiting Bordeaux early March, Corona was a threat on the horizon and France has been more concerned by a strike of the air traffic control. However, I was travelling to Bordeaux and had the chance to get some first insights to the 2019 vintage. I was very much looking forward to the “en primeur tastings” which were scheduled for March 26, 2020 but the tastings were cancelled mid-March. Immediately I contacted the different associations and wineries in Bordeaux and asked for samples.
The result was a small number of wines which arrived in Essen before the shutdown of France made shipments rather difficult. These first samples of the vintage 2019 were tasted under pristine conditions to assure a fair and equal assessment of all qualities. In fact, the samples proved right the opinion of some of Bordeaux’ leading figures. Bruno-Eugène Borie from Château Ducru-Beaucaillou sees 2019 in a line with the excellent vintages of 2016, 2010, 2009 und 2005.
Henri Lurton talks about his best vintage, along with 2016, he has ever vinified at Château Brane-Cantenac. Philippe Dhalluin from Château Mouton-Rothschild asses the vintage as rich and abundant in quality and also in quantity. After some smaller crops they came back to an average production.
Emmanuel Cruse from Château d’Issan sees that 2019 has a lot in common with 2016 yet preserving more freshness. It is a very good vintage but appearing at a very difficult time on the market. In fact, the start of this vintage was very positive. Enough precipitations during winter were retained by soils like chalk and clay. Vineyards on these water retaining soils had a huge advantage in the future growing period. With exception of a wet June, the vintage has taken advantage of a rather dry climatic condition, which prevented diseases in the vineyards to a huge extend. No chance for powdery or downy mildew. Even the heat waves were not really harming the vines as rain set in, always at the last moment but still early enough to prevent massive water stress and a slow-down of the maturity. The late physiological maturity brought a lot of alcohol, but the wines show more freshness as in the previous years.
Fabien Teitgen, Winemaker of Smith-Haut-Lafitte relates this freshness to the good acidity “due to cool night temperatures during the ripening period”. This fact is also good news for white wines. „They are the big surprise “, says Olivier Bernard of Domaine de Chevalier.
At Château Coutet in Barsac, Philippe and Aline Baly were harvesting in three passes with a total of 19 harvesting days. They judge the conditions as rather ideal: “These climatic conditions have generated a harvest whose quality is indisputably present.” Same samples made their way to Essen and I have tasted them. Some more samples are announced and will hopefully arrive during the current week. There will be a weekly update of my tasting notes, whenever samples will arrive.
Unfortunately, 2019 arrives in a difficult time, the Corona virus puts the world in fear and makes trade more and more difficult. Trade berries and new customs duties create a difficult frame for this vintage. However, we should not forget one thing: there are wonderful 2019s waiting for us, wines with ageing potential and charm which will survive every crisis.