By Cos d'Estournel
2020 Saint-Estephe

Wine Details
Appellation: Saint-Estephe, Classified Second Growth in 1855
Blend: 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Merlot

Estate
North of the Medoc, on the hill of Saint-Estephe at the bend of the road, are the majestic pagodas of Cos d'Estournel. After the sheer delight, it seeks to penetrate the mystery carefully hidden behind the imposing Zanzibar Gate. The residence of the Maharajah of Saint-Estephe does not fail to surprise. Here is a real palace, entirely dedicated to wine. This was desired by Louis Gaspard d'Estournel. When he inherited a few hectares of vineyards in 1791, he continued to enlarge the estate and provide it with the best techniques. In the image of his wine, bewitching and elegant, spicy and powerful, he took the chance to be himself in a world so conventional, cultivating his differences. Property of Michel Reybier since 2000, Cos d'Estournel continues its journey, balancing audacity and humility. Every decision is a risk taken in a visionary philosophy. Culture, divided into plots and pushed to its peak, demands innovation in the winery - a taste for beauty and excellence in a world imbued with unobtrusive elegance. This is the legacy of Louis Gaspard, which its owner today extends. The unique style of Cos d'Estournel, born of a sublime terroir magnified by the passion and respect of men over centuries, made from its discovery a true journey.

The Terroir of Cos d'Estournel
Situated on the edge of the plateau near the Gironde estuary, Cos d'Estournel enjoys a remarkable geographic location. The vineyard benefits from a maritime climate and gentle natural ventilation, while being sheltered from extreme weather. Comprising a rolling landscape on deep gravel and clay, Cos d'Estournel enjoys an unparalleled situation with two hillsides and a central plateau. This location offers an incredible variety of terroirs, and the exhaustive knowledge of the vineyard makes it possible to determine what each plot has to offer, harness its full potential, and bring out its very best.

2020 Vintage
Transcendent. 2020 required constant vigilance on our part and a readiness to adapt to changing conditions at every moment, while our vines once again demonstrated an uncommon ability to transcend unusual conditions. For Michel Reybier, the 2020 vintage is a celebration of twenty years of passion at the helm of the estate. "It is the perfect moment to reveal our 2020 vintage, bottled in its exceptional flacon." The 2020 vintage of Cos d'Estournel offers a stunning balance between extraordinary richness and surprising freshness. Its nose offers powerful aromas of blackcurrant, blackberry, nutmeg, black tea, and spices alongside vivacious mineral notes. The vintage's opulence finds excellent balance against an uncommon verve, making Cos d'Estournel 2020 a quintessential expression of our terroir.
[Information provided by Beyerman]

Wine: 2020 Chateau Cos D'Estournel
Score/Rating: 99
Suggested Drinking Window: 2033 - 2083
Review Date: 03/29/2023
Reviewed By: Jeb Dunnuck
Tasting Notes: Based on 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38% Merlot, the deep purple-hued 2020 Chateau Cos D'Estournel has, dare I say, an almost Lafite-like sense of elegance and class, offering gorgeous cassis and darker currants fruits as well as tobacco, lead pencil, acacia flowers, and graphite. [...] with a pH of 3.9 and an IPT of 80, this flawless, full-bodied, incredibly elegant Saint-Estephe has silky tannins, perfect balance, and a great, great finish. It will need a decade of cellaring to hit its prime drink window. Of the trilogy of 2018, 2019, and 2020, it's clearly my favorite (that’s splitting hairs), with a similarity to the 2016, and will most likely merit another point at maturity.

Wine: 2020 Chateau Cos d'Estournel (St. Estephe)
Score/Rating: 99
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink from 2028 - 2060
Review Date: 03/21/2023
Tasting Notes: A gorgeous, stylish wine, here you find a series of waves packed with blackberries, black plums, black cherries, smoke, licorice, dark chocolate, soy and an array of spices. Rich, deep and intense, the wine hits all the right notes as it melds power, fruit, freshness and elegance to create an opulent, velvety, silky finish that builds and expands as it hangs with you. This is so good now, it will be hard to wait to pull a cork. But its best days are all in the future. So, wait a bit and you will be amply rewarded with an incredible wine. Drink from 2028-2060.

Wine: Chateau Cos d'Estournel, St-Estephe, 2eme Cru Classe, Bordeaux, France 2020
Score/Rating: 99
Suggested Drinking Window: 2025 - 2065
Review Date: 02/23/2023
Reviewed By: Panos Kakaviatos
Tasting Notes: A first-growth level wine. With aristocratic ease it conveys nimble energy and sneaky sensuality. Pencil lead, white tobacco, cassis, juicy blackberry and cherry gorgeously delineated with refined tannins providing impressive structure for long-term cellaring. The pH is the highest since 2003, but you get neither heat nor imbalance. Impressive dry extract and rather 'normal' alcohol at 13.5% evokes a positively classic feel, leading to a subtle yet super-long finish. For owner Michel Reybier, the vintage marks 20 years of 'passion at the helm'. Comes encased in a uniquely gold-coloured engraved bottle with the phrase 'C’etait Cos sinon rien' - Cos or nothing else.

Wine: Chateau Cos d'Estournel St.-Estephe 2020
Score/Rating: 98
Suggested Drinking Window: Try after 2028
Review Date: 03/31/2023
Tasting Notes: A brooding and deep wine just on the nose, with blackcurrants, redcurrants, spices such as cardamom and nutmeg, as well as black truffles with earth. Complex. Full-bodied with fine yet chewy tannins, that are wonderfully interwoven. Very structured and long. Needs five to six years to come around. 62% Cabernet and 38% Merlot. Try after 2028.

Wine: 2020 Cos d'Estournel
Score/Rating: 98
Suggested Drinking Window: 2028-2060
Review Date: 03/13/2023
Reviewed By: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Tasting Notes: The 2020 Cos d’Estournel has a deep garnet-purple color. It is very closed at this youthful stage but with much shaking it opens out to vivacious notes of crushed blackcurrants, juicy blackberries, kirsch, and cinnamon stick, plus suggestions of star anise, lilacs, and crushed rocks. The medium-bodied palate shimmers with energetic black fruit and mineral layers, supported by fine-grained, beautifully ripe tannins and seamless freshness, finishing very long and fragrant. A very elegant expression of Cos, and absolutely beguiling!

Wine: Chateau Cos d'Estournel 2020 Saint-Estephe
Score/Rating: 96
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink from 2027
Review Date: 04/01/2023
Reviewed By: Roger Voss
Tasting Notes: This wine's complex structure and powerful tannins are shot through with freshness. It is already impressive, the spice and black fruits in harmony with the texture. The wine will age well. Drink from 2027.

Wine: 2020 Cos d'Estournel
Score/Rating: 95+
Suggested Drinking Window: 2030 - 2055
Review Date: 01/2024
Reviewed By: Neal Martin
Tasting Notes: The 2020 Cos d'Estournel has a more understated bouquet than its peers, demanding more coaxing from the glass to reveal its gravel-tinged black fruit - quintessential Saint-Estephe, really. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, white-pepper-infused black fruit, gentle grip and quite a persistent finish. It's a bit uncompromising at the moment, but it should evolve into an excellent wine. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

Wine: 2020 Cos d'Estournel
Score/Rating: 94
Suggested Drinking Window: 2025 - 2045
Review Date: 04/06/2023
Reviewed By: William Kelley
Tasting Notes: The 2020 Cos d'Estournel is a bold, demonstrative wine, bursting with aromas of cassis, dark berries and plum liqueur mingled with exotic spices, burning embers and petals, framed by a generous application of creamy new oak. Full-bodied, broad and low acid/high pH in style, it's rich and extracted, with a layered, mid-palate and a long, clove-inflected finish. While it isn't anywhere near as extreme as the 2009, the 2020 does appear to mark a move back toward a more turbo-charged style after Cos d'Estournel's shift toward elegance, exemplified by the brilliant 2016 - but perhaps that's merely an illusion created by the vintage?

Wine: Chateau Cos-d'Estournel St.-Estephe 2020
Score/Rating: 94
Suggested Drinking Window: Drink now through 2038
Review Date: 03/31/2023
Reviewed By: James Molesworth
Tasting Notes: A broad, rich, enticing wine, built on a core of exotic mulberry and loganberry notes laced with black tea, spices and incense. Rounded through the finish, with the fruit cruising through under a suave gloss of toast. A real crowd-pleaser, with a luxurious feel that makes this hard to lay off of now. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Drink now through 2038.

Wine: Ch Cos d'Estournel 2020 St-Estephe
Score/Rating: 16.5/20
Suggested Drinking Window: 2028 - 2038
Review Date: 02/15/2024
Reviewed By: Julia Harding MW
Tasting Notes: Tasted blind. Very dark crimson. Lightly spicy dark fruit. Relatively light-bodied with super-fine tannins. Rather delicate for a 2020, but all in balance. The tannins supple and harmonious even though this needs time.