2009 Château Cos d'Estournel

100 POINTS

James Suckling

This is amazing as always with layers of fruit and firm, velvety tannins. Full body, incredible depth of fruit and length. Currants, raspberries and Indian spices. It goes on for minutes. A monumental Cos. Greatest ever from here. Better in five years, but amazing.

100 POINTS

James Suckling

What a fabulous nose of currants, raspberries and Indian spices. Nutmeg and clover. Full-bodied, with an amazing precision and superb compacted fruit. Endless. Laser guided. Shows such intensity. Decadent and rich and changing all the time. Mystical wine. Dense, yet agile. More refined than when I tasted it in November in Hong Kong. Try in 2018.

100 POINTS

James Suckling

Classic Cos with so much spice and fruit, yet refined and sexy. Powerful with super silky tannins. Full bodied, yet incredibly compacted. This is so tight and rich with layers of fruit and tannins and a finish that last for minutes on the palate. I asked the head of Cos, Jean-Guillaume Prats, what the alcohol on the wine was, and he said 14.8% alcohol and 3.58 pH. Fab. Try after 2021.

98 POINTS

James Suckling

A very bold, ripe and complex wine with excellent concentration and a warm, engaging personality (cinnamon and allspice) that's hard to resist. With aeration a hint of dried fruit character emerges. Massive, yet polished finish. It’s been rated 100 in the past. We will see. Drink or hold. (Horizontal Tasting, London, 2019)

97 POINTS

Wine Spectator

This shows why everyone loves the vintage. Features a gorgeous display of perfectly melded plum, red currant and blackberry fruit that flows beautifully over very creamy tannins. Still nearly all fruit, with flecks of warm stone and iron on the finish. This could easily sit in this phase for some time, but will be hard to resist. Totally modern and beautifully done.--Non-blind Cos-d'Estournel vertical (December 2015). Best from 2020 through 2040. 20,830 cases made.

93 POINTS

Jane Anson - Decanter Magazine

Intense, pureed damson fruit aromas remind me of its impact at En primeur, although then it was a little overblown. The terroir is starting to come through now, but the fruit still feels a touch overripe and overly concentrated, not enabling the juiciness that the clay soils of St-Estèphe should be highlighting. It's still extremely young with a great life ahead of it, so this is one to put away for a while longer and give that terroir more of a chance to exert itself over the vintage character.

90 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

This was/is a 100 point Parker wine. Homogenisation of grand Bordeaux estates for style might be the next big thing. Crushed peanut shell oak character, black currant fruit character, choc-berry, mocha dusting. Red currants, briar, massive, rich, ripe. Full throttle – big fleshy, flashy style, thick set, muscular. Punchy, powerful but maturing quickly in fleshing out and getting a bit sloppy. Oafish and ripe. Will win many fans for big ballsy style, but not for me, feels cynical and reactive to critical appraisal. Really has no sense of place or variety, has a concentration and intensity that feels very ‘international’, albeit pretty good in that way.