2005 Chateau Cos d'Estournel Saint-Estephe 750 ml

After four months and many emails and phone calls later, we finally harpooned this white whale—secured directly from the château cellars, with guaranteed perfect condition and provenance, we’re offering a very limited allocation of this 99-point 2005 Cos d’Estournel Saint-Estèphe. Is this one of the finest Bordeaux reds we’ve ever tasted? The fact that after a private vertical tasting with owner Jean-Guillaume Prats back in 2012, we immediately ordered six magnums for our own cellars, might answer that question. 

The 2005 Cos embodies everything we love in great Claret, superior to most of the First Growths from the same vintage, and thus a relative bargain at a quarter of the price of wines of similar quality.  It is truly beautiful, with layers of dark fruits, wild dried herbs, minerals, cedar, cloves, and exotic spices with foie gras-like bottle bouquet. The palate is archetypal Saint-Estèphe, dense, brooding, structured, and mineral, with seamlessly fine tannins. The cépage is 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, and 3% Cabernet Franc.

In so many ways it is the perfect classified growth of the Médoc, producing wines that are so consistent, yet so distinctive. Neighbor to Lafite-Rothschild, it shares Lafite’s awesome combination of power, elegance, and majestic structure, with an exotic complexity that conjures images of the château itself, a unique oriental-inspired edifice. Undoubtedly the best château of St-Estèphe and firmly in the “should-be-a-First-Growth” camp.

The critics seem equally enamored with this wine, with James Suckling rating it 99 points and saying, “The purity of fruit in this is fascinating.” Wine Spectator scored it 98 points intimating that it has the power of 2003 with the finesse of 2000. Robert Parker rates it 97 points, saying, “This is a beauty and certainly the top wine of St.-Estèphe.” Antonio Galloni also scores it 97 points, saying, “I have been fortunate to taste the 2005 Cos d'Estournel three times in recent weeks and it has never been anything less than stunningly beautiful.”