2001 Cos d'Estournel, St-Estèphe

2001 Cos d'Estournel, St-Estèphe SKU #1008837

$189.99

JS 93	RP 93	ST 92
WS 91

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Professional Reviews

James Suckling
93
Velvety textured with soft and silky tannins and a chocolate, meat and berry character. Full and round. Slightly forgotten and delicious.

(09/2015)
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
93
A beautiful effort, the 2001 Cos d'Estournel (65% Cabernet Sauvignon and 35% Merlot) exhibits a poised, noble bouquet of black currants, cedar, spice box, and licorice. A hint of truffles emerges as it sits in the glass. Medium-bodied with sweet fruit (mostly black) and nicely integrated wood, it builds incrementally in the mouth, ending with a 50-second finish. Drink this stylish, restrained yet substantial claret over the next 15+ years. (RP)

(06/2004)
Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar
92
Bright ruby-red. Vibrant, complex aromas of cassis, graphite, eucalyptus and tobacco. Fat and sweet but shapely, with impressive density and underlying structure. Flavors of plum, mint, roasted nuts and sweet oak. Fairly full for young Cos, but quite suave. Finishes with firm but smooth tannins and excellent grip. Better than the 2000. (ST)

(06/2004)
Wine Spectator
91
Shows a cool, minty edge, with notes of bay and savory. The red and black currant fruit have a slightly dried edge. Pebbly tannins carry the finish, lending this a pleasant tug of earth. Very poised. (JM, Web Only-2016)

K&L Notes

This wine was one of Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2004. 92 points Neal Martin's Wine Journal: "Tasted blind at Bordeaux Index’s 10-Year On horizontal. There is a fine level of sweetness on the nose with red rather than black fruits: cranberry leaf and raspberry with a touch of wild strawberry and orange rind developing with time. The palate is medium-bodied with great depth and structure. Blackberry, smoke, cooked meat and crushed stone, finely poised towards the finish that has a wonderful symmetry. Lovely." (05/2011)

Staff Reviews

By: Gary Westby
9/22/2008
K&L Staff Member

I have been lucky enough to taste this wine many, many times and each taste was a real occasion. Going back into my old notebook, I see that I tasted it for the first time in barrel at the Chateau on March 29th 2002, and it made a huge impression on me. I felt that it was one of the best wines of the vintage; with exclamation points all over my description- it reminded me very much of the 1990. We tasted it several more times on that trip, and once we compared it to the 2000. The K&L group was unanimous, the 2000 Cos was good, but the 2001 was the better wine- an opinion that has been confirmed again and again by many others in the trade that have done the comparison. This is a classic sleeper, an insider’s vintage, and a smart buy. When we tasted it again on release, when the wine's signature exoticism was really starting to blossom. This Cos is much more modern than bottles from the old days, but somehow Jean-Guillaume Prats and his team have updated the wine without compromising its soul. It is still (I have tasted up to 2005) one of the most identifiable wines in Bordeaux with its perfectly balanced components of coffee, cinnamon and clean-clay-earth. This is big Bordeaux, and while I think it would show very well in a comparative tasting now (it may even be a "spoiler") the real pleasure in drinking is still yet to come. I give this my highest recommendation for my patient friends and customers!
Drink from 2011 to 2031