Château Cos d'Estournel 2021

Deep, mineral-driven, citrus fruits, fennel seeds, floral notes. On the palate, racy and fresh, precise acidity, crisp fruit, plenty of drive, saline finish with lime on the retro-nasal. Very fresh!

Leads with tarragon and thyme notes, followed by lemon gelée and white peach flavors. Features a flash of apricot on the finish, giving this an unctuous feel. Flattering. Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon. Drink now through 2026. 1,200 cases made.

Clementine and lemon/lime brightness, spring flowers, white pepper and wet stone. Cool ocean breezes near the mouth of the Gironde estuary and the clay and limestone soils are conducive to aromatic precision, and the palate shows subtle depth and impressive length. 71% Sauvignon Blanc with 29% Semillon, aged in only 8% new oak. Enjoy with lobster in a butter lemon sauce.

The 2021 Cos d'Estournel Blanc, bottled in December 2022, shows a bit of reduction in the glass, with touches of candle wax and lanolin infusing the yellow fruit, perhaps requiring a little more delineation. The palate is well-balanced with fine poise. This clearly has more tension and minerality compared to the Pagodes Blanc, with a crisper finish. This is a successful white Cos d'Estournel that should age well in bottle, but it needs time for the aromatics to fully open.

Bright, fresh and fruity, with loads of sweet, ripe green apples, lemons, grapefruit, and floral notes. The wine remains vibrant with ample concentration and complexity, finishing with additional nuances of mango, pineapple, and honeysuckle. You can enjoy it on release, though it will gain nuances with a few years in the bottle. Drink from 2024–2034.

Light, yellow-green with a silver tinge. Delicate reduction nuances of flint and grapefruit hints, a touch of white peach, lime and mineral nuances, delicate elderflower. Complex, fine fruit sweetness, a lively arc of acidity, a fine yellow apple note on the finish, showing freshness and length. Certainly has ageing potential.

The Grand Vin in white, the 2021 Château Cos D'Estournel Blanc includes slightly more Semillon and is 71% Sauvignon Blanc and 29% Semillon raised in 8% new barrels. It's a slightly more closed and tight white, revealing beautiful citrus fruit that gives way to more mint, floral, and chalky mineral-like nuances with air. Medium-bodied and balanced, it plays in the fresher style of the vintage but is still concentrated and serious, and it will benefit from a year or three of bottle age. It’s built for the cellar and will benefit from 2-3 years and drink well for at least a decade. This is 12.3% alcohol with a pH of 3.13.

The Cos d'Estournel white 2021 is super racy, slender and very straight, with a delicate, ripe-fruity top note. Extremely fine and broad on the palate, its structure is the standout element—endlessly long, salty, and profound. Oak barely shapes it.

Kunz barrel sample 2022: (71% Sauvignon Blanc, 29% Sémillon, 12.3% alc./vol.) Silky, sweet, creamy, powerful bouquet of mirabelle plums, linden blossom, vanilla, light caramel and mint. Balanced, full, finely mineral and fresh palate with delicate fruit, well-integrated acidity, elegant structure, powerful, sweet aromatics, and a long, fine, fresh finish.

(71% Sauvignon Blanc, 29% Sémillon, 12.3% alc./vol.) Silky, sweet, creamy, powerful bouquet: mirabelle plums, linden blossom, vanilla, light caramel, mint. Balanced, full, finely mineral and fresh palate with delicate fruit, well-integrated acidity, elegant structure, powerful sweet aromatics, long, fine, fresh finish. 18/20 2026 - 2045

An apple-accented nose with fresh, crunchy flesh, set against honeyed and saffron notes that sparkle with a thousand glints. A supple entry on the palate, soothing and deliciously milky. A very elegant wine.

Of good intensity, the bouquet of the white from Cos d’Estournel seems fully open to me. It reveals inviting notes of ripe peaches, limes, and hazelnuts. Salty on the attack, the wine is fresh and juicy. Its acidic structure ensures a thirst-quenching character, as does the touch of salinity on the finish.

Yellow color with gray highlights. Moderately intense nose with ripe, slightly yeasty fruit. The palate is particularly rich at the attack and through the mid-palate. Like its younger sibling, this wine gains in flavor and energy on the finish. Drink it young. Enjoy its low alcohol level.

Aromas of sliced pears, green apple, matchstick, and dried papaya follow through to a full body with a solid core of fruit and phenolics that give it structure and tightness. Slightly chewy at the end. Very structured. Give this time to open and show its true self. Try after 2026.

The nose is beautifully crafted, offering subtle richness, fine grain and delicate power. It reveals notes of yellow/juicy peach and apple, then lighter fleshy pear, with fine touches of ripe lemon/zest, hints of crushed peach, discreet nuances of small exotic fruits, and a subtle almost buttery/vanilla toasty note supporting the fruit. The palate is fresh and mineral, with a slight crystalline edge, precision, finesse, gourmandise, fullness, and power expressed delicately, with roundness and a certain glycerol. On the palate, this wine shows pulpy pear, peach, and lighter fleshy apple, with touches of lychee, small exotic fruits, a fine hint of pineapple, a subtle touch of finger lime, a delicate hint of almond, toast, a very discreet gunflint note, and a discreet almost buttery nuance. Lovely sapid, finely iodized finish. A wine of pure elegance, offering energy, dynamism, refined roundness, and richness in freshness/precision.

Gently reductive aromas of pear, nectarine and gooseberry introduce the 2021 Cos d'Estournel Blanc, a medium to full-bodied, ample and satiny wine that's seamless and enveloping, with a bright spine of tangy acidity. As readers may remember, it's a blend of 71% Sauvignon Blanc and fully 29% Sémillon.

Fresh, elegant, velvety texture with boxwood, minerality, white pear and floral notes.