Chateau Cos d'Estournel 2016

Cos d'Estournel 2016 is a blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc aged in 65% new French oak and 35% two-year-old French oak for 15 months. Bottled in July 2018, it is deep garnet-purple in colour and starts off a little closed and reticent, opening up slowly and seductively to reveal beautiful lilacs, rosehip tea, crushed stones and camphor nuances over a core of crème de cassis, kirsch, wild blueberries and mocha, plus vapours of incense and wood smoke. The palate is simply electric, charged with an energy and depth of flavours 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. Simply magical. Lisa Perroti Brown. 11/2018

Fresh and exuberant, with lots of fruit and a very marked structure. It's not ready yet, but it's clearly a much superior wine. Jancis Robinson 10/2022

It's muscular, but so well defined and toned. Full-bodied, with deep, dense fruit on the palate, but at the same time powerful and rich. Lots of sandalwood and blackberry character. Chewy and rich on the finish. This is a warm and generous wine, but the alcohol is just over 13 degrees. It's not that high. I love the finish. Extravagant. Magical. Try from 2025. 01/2019

This wine has a core of slightly exotic blackberry, plum and blackberry fruit, mixed with burnt spices, savoury notes, lilac and incense, while a buried chalk minerality sits in reserve. Very elegant, with a marvellously long finish that lets the fruit and other elements shine through. Best from 2025 to 2040. 15,833 cases produced. 03/2019. James Molesworth

The powerful tannins show strongly in this elegant, structured wine. The rich blackcurrant and black plum flavours are enhanced by the acidity. The wine has weight and concentration, but is also balanced and fresh. This combination will allow the wine to age for many years. Drink from 2025. ROGER VOSS

"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. (NM) (1/2020)"

"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. " (2/2019)

"Exceptional quality, silky tannins, cinammon, turmeric, cloves, grilled liqourice root, crushed rocks, almost seamless, so full of life and character, and brambled fruit. Chcooate, damson, so juicy and characterful, and singing of St Estèphe character, this is the appellation at its best. Decades ahead of it.  (6/2022)"