Cos d'Estournel 2011

The 2011 Cos d'Estournel exhibits a dense ruby/purple color and sweet, toasty, oaky notes intermixed with floral and forest floor characteristics. The complex aromatics suggest this is a top success in 2011. In the mouth, the wine is slightly more compact than one would find in a great vintage, such as 2009 and 2010, but it has impressive richness for the vintage as well as light to moderate tannin and admirable purity. It will benefit from 2-5 years of cellaring, and should keep for 15-20 years. Only 30% of the production was utilized for Cos D'Estournel, a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. DRINK:2016 - 2036

The 2011 Cos d'Estournel shows quite a bit of extraction on the nose with brambly red fruit, blackcurrant, iris flower and cedar, gaining cohesion with time in the glass. The palate is ripe and chewy, good depth but broad-shouldered, again, maybe a little heavy on the extraction, whilst the finish feels a little monotone. Difficult to see where this will go. Frankly, I would drink this sooner rather than later. Tasted blind at the annual 10-Year-On tasting. 2022 - 2032

A dense, refined wine, with blueberries, blackberries and spices. Full body with integrated tannins and a polished texture. Love the mouthfeel to this. Extremely well done for the vintage, considering the hail in St Estephe. Try in 2018.

Cos was good in the 1990's but since the 2001 vintage, the quality here has reached another level. Jean-Guillaume Prats has been given total control by the owner, Michel Reybier, to produce the best wine possible. His avowed aim here is to make wine of First Growth quality at less than half the price. The stunning new winery may be the final piece in the jigsaw. It is the most modern and sophisticated in all of Bordeaux, with the world's only 100% gravity cellar - no pumps used at all. Cos is now battling it out with Léoville Lascases, Ducru Beaucaillou and Palmer as the Médoc's best non-First Growth. The 2011 vintage here is the result of a massive selection process. Only 9000 cases will be produced which is half the production of 2009 and 2010 and a third of the amount they made here in the 1990s. 70% of the crop will be in the second wine - Les Pagodes de Cos. 2011 was the earliest harvest here since 1893 and the smallest production since 1991. The resulting wine is rather impressive. A really black colour with intense, inky concentration. The savage selection process has really paid off with a wine of great density, power and richness. This is a big, bold wine with masses of black fruit, a viscous texture and good, ripe, balancing tannins. A modern day version of the 1996 - but better.

The nose is fresh black fruited quite racy. The palate has depth lots of concentrated blackcurrant and black cherry. The fruit feels ripe the sweetness of the fruit backed by dark chocolate and liquorice layers of complex flavours. The tannins are firm structured slightly dry but behind there is black fruited richness.

Was this wine released early because its owners knew it was not up to the quality of last year's stellar release? Quite possibly. It's dense, deeply coloured and concentrated for the vintage, but the wine seems rather forced, like someone trying to impose a Napa Valley style on a Médoc. Finishes very dry. 10+ years.

Rich blackcurrant fruit, slightly exotic Cos spiciness, structured smoothness and lovely elegant length. Drink 2017-2035.