Chateau Cos d'Estournel 2016

In my last sighted review of the 2016 Cos d’Estournel, I wrote: "I suspect it will close down for a period in its youth." Perhaps it is already beginning to shut down, because though this wine was deeply impressive, it fell just a notch short of ethereal previous bottles, despite its "pixelated black fruit" on the nose and "sublime balance" on the palate. I tasted the wine twice thereafter, though this time with a 4-6 hour decant, and this revealed the Cos d'Estournel that has amazed since I first tasted it out of barrel.

• Drinking Window: 2030 - 2070
• Reviewer Name: Neal Martin
• Review Date: August 2020

This is muscular yet so well defined and toned. Full-bodied with deep and dense fruit on the palate, yet powerful and rich at the same time. So much sandalwood and blackberry character. Chewy and rich at the finish. This is a warm and generous wine, but the alcohol is just over 13 degrees. Not that high. Love the finish. Extravagant. Magical. Try from 2025.

• Reviewer Name: James Suckling
• Review Date: December 2019

You could lose count if you were trying to number all the layers of velvet drenched, powerful, lifted, sweet, fresh deep red fruits here. The wine offers incredible levels of concentration along with precision, purity, power and elegance. But to take all this in at its peak, patience is required as you will need at least 12 years or so before this really starts shining. But it is going to be worth the wait.

• Reviewer Name: Jeff Leve
• Review Date: September 2019

The 2016 Cos d'Estournel is blended of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc aged in 65% new and 35% two-year-old French oak for 15 months. Bottled in July 2018, it is deep garnet-purple colored and starts off a little closed and reticent, opening out slowly and seductively to reveal beautiful lilacs, rose hip tea, crushed stones and camphor nuances over a core of crème de cassis, kirsch, wild blueberries and mocha plus wafts of incense and wood smoke. The palate is simply electric, charged with an energy and depth of flavors that seem to defy the elegance and ethereal nature of its medium-bodied weight, featuring super ripe, densely pixelated tannins that firmly frame the myriad of fruit and floral sparks, finishing with epic length. Just. Magic.

• Drinking Window: 2024 - 2068
• Reviewer Name: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
• Review Date: November 2018

The grand vin 2016 Cos d'Estournel checks in as 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, and 1% Cabernet Franc that saw 70% new French oak. One of the more seamless, pure, elegant versions of this cuvée out there, it boasts a saturated purple color as well as a monster nose of pure crème de cassis, gravelly, rocky minerality, tobacco leaf, crushed violets, and lead pencil shavings. One of those “iron fists in a velvet glove” wines, with full-bodied richness and beautiful structure that’s covered by thrilling levels of fruit and texture, it stays tight, compact, and incredibly focused on the palate. It’s already brilliant given its purity of fruit and balance, but it deserves a decade of bottle age and will keep for 4-5 decades.

• Drinking Window: 2024 - 2064
• Review Date: February 2019

The form, richness, ripeness and depth of flavour are all clearly on display here. Just bottled, it's extremely different in character to the 2015 vintage; it’s hard to believe they're just one year apart. Harvesting finished in mid-October, the latest on record bar 2001. It is excellent quality, and I look forward to attacking this wine once it has started to really show itself. We need to be patient for a good while longer, but this should run and run. Right now it's the liquorice, slate and pulsating walls of vibrant tannins that are at the fore. There's a precision to the layers of fruit and a touch of salinity on the finish. Succulent is really the best word to sum this wine up - I loved it during en-primeur and perhaps it nudges even higher now.

• Drinking Window: 2026 - 2050
• Reviewer Name: Jane Anson
• Review Date: July 2018

The 2016 Cos d'Estournel is polished, silky and gracious, just as it was from barrel. In this vintage, the Grand Vin is especially refined. The dark red cherry, plum, new leather, licorice, cedar, mocha and spice notes are all beautifully delineated. To be sure, the 2016 represents a decidedly laid-back style within the context of recent vintages. I can't wait to see how it ages.

• Drinking Window: 2026 - 2056
• Reviewer Name: Antonio Galloni
• Review Date: January 2019