2024 Château Cos d’Estournel & Portfolio – En Primeur

Tomorrow’s pick of the Bordeaux En Primeur Releases

2024 Château Cos d’Estournel (2ème Cru Saint-Estèphe)

60 Cabernet Sauvignon, 38 Merlot, 1.5 Cabernet Franc, 0.5 Petit Verdot: 50% new oak

12.76% alc: 3.57 pH: 29 hl/ha: 71 IPT: Harvested between 23 September and 7 October

Cos owner Michel Reybier and winemaker Dominique Arangoïts always go to great pains to explain the vagaries of each vintage with exquisite detail before tasting their wines. This in-depth analysis brings more understanding to the resulting flavours.  And so it was that after a very rainy winter (a record since 2000), there was a good budbreak, and fertility seemed promising.  Then, it was cold and rainy, affecting flowering with millerandage on Merlot and coulure on Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  This impacted yields greatly, and the harvest was one of the lowest ever at 29 hl/ha.  These lower yields meant that even though there were infrequent showers throughout the vendange, the fruit achieved perfect ripeness, which is clear to see in the glass.  The result is a stunning Cos nose of opulence and power, with beauty and control in equal measure.  I love Pagodes in 2024, and it is certainly a wine to hunt down, but this Grand Vin takes the Pagodes model and turns up the volume delivery a grander and more all-encompassing composition.  The tannins are sensational: old-school, bitter, teasing and Nebbiolo-like and the finish is incredible.  While this is not a rich, heady, voluminous style of Cos, it is every bit as engaging as the wines found in more ostentatious vintages.  2024 Cos is a more controlled, stealthy and well-drilled wine with immense class and tone, and it will age like clockwork.   19+/20

2024 Pagodes de Cos Rouge (second wine of Cos d’Estournel)

50% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot: 20% new oak: 12.71% alc: 3.52 pH: 65 IPT: 13% press wine

2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Pagodes de Cos, and it celebrates this occasion with a luxurious, engraved bottle design.  This is an extraordinarily impressive second wine.  There are more spice, cherry, and plum notes than I have ever seen in this wine, and coupled with a cooler finish packed with lip-smacking acidity, this is a glorious experience from start to finish.  Every element is exemplary, from the thrilling nose and its stunning fanfare to the impeccably balanced fruit topped with rhythmic, percussive tannins and keen amaro bitterness.  This is a tremendous wine for the patient collector, and it is destined to be yet another dramatic and rewarding Pagodes.  18+/20 QP

2024 G d’Estournel (Médoc)

61 Merlot, 30 Cabernet Sauvignon, 8 Cabernet Franc, 1 Petit Verdot: 12% new oak: 12.24% alc: 3.61 pH: 69 IPT: Harvested between 23 September and 8 October

As every year passes, G appears to gather more gravitas and presence.  2024 marks another positive step in its evolution, with precise, firm, modern fruit and a remarkably long, even finish.  The purity and quality of the tannins are remarkable, largely due to the key decisions made during the winemaking process that have led to their unmistakable crystalline character.  With no foulage (crushing), a lower temperature fermentation and shorter skin contact, the gentle extraction of flavours derived from the skins has significantly benefited from their organic conversion.  The result is a remarkably pure and resonant black-fruited wine with little oak interference and an electrifying finish.  In 2024, G has managed to translate the script of its soils more than ever before.  This is a wine to watch and a definitive QP candidate.  17.5+/20 QP

2024 Cos d’Estournel Blanc (Cos d’Estournel)

60% Sauvignon Blanc, 8% new oak: 12.24 alc: 3.04 pH: Harvested between 17 and 27 September

With awe-inspiring control throughout, this wine is as resonant and enthralling as any great white Burgundy, but with a stunning, salty, windblown finish which takes one’s breath away.  Opulent and amazing, this is a kaleidoscopic white wine with a mojito-keen finish and a halo of dynamism, which would make legions of famous white wines blush with envy!    19/20

2024 Pagodes de Cos Blanc (second wine of Cos d’Estournel Blanc)

61 Semillon, 39 Sauvignon Blanc: 17% new oak (for the Semillon only): 12.01 alc: 3.07 pH: 15 hl/ha: Harvested between 17 and 27 September

Hints of lanolin, oyster shell and bladderwrack overlay a lemon meringue core of fruit, and the texture and mid-palate plumpness are certainly more indulgent than I expected for this label.  With a richer, foody and more penetrative feel, this will not be a long-lived Pagodes Blanc, but it will certainly strut its stuff down the centre of many a dining room table in search of indulgent dishes to embrace.   17.5/20

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MATTHEW JUKES SCORE CONVERSION CHART

As a wine taster and writer, I prefer you to read my words rather than focus on my scores.  This is why I rarely score wines unless I write an extensive report like this one.  I believe that scores taken from the context of tasting notes are essentially meaningless.  I describe my featured wines fully so you can imagine the aroma, shape, and flavour.  Scores don’t help with this.  You will know that several different scoring methods are used in the global wine trade.  Most of my wine-writing colleagues have been tempted to the dark side, using the 100-point rating system.  A few, usually older types, cling to the venerable five-star rating.  As you know, I favour the 20-point score.  It’s how I was taught and dovetails nicely with how I judge wines.  For those unfamiliar with the 20-point scoring system, here is a table that translates it into various other formats.

AND THERE IS MORE – Every year, when I write my Burgundy En Primeur Report, I select only the Rapport Qualité Prix (which I shorten to QP) wines that represent stunning quality and accuracy combined with fair pricing. It is these wines I make a fuss about, and I am extremely strict about only featuring the very most important of the campaign.  Fair pricing is a commodity that has avoided Bordeaux for many years, causing global consternation and, in most cases, a tacit boycott of many of the wines. If wines are released with timid reductions this year or come out with more expensive pricing than any comparable bottled wines already on the market, then I regard this as a miss.  So, for the first time, I will add QP accreditation to my very favourite Bordeaux En Primeur wines. Suppose these wines are released at appropriate prices (which I deem to be in the 30% reduction compared to last year’s prices, and somewhere along the pricing of the 2014s for the most expensive wines). In that case, you should seriously consider buying them.  Remember that lower-priced wines cannot possibly reduce their prices by tens of percentage points because of ever-rising costs.  Bordeaux is a multichannel region, and it must work together across all price points to entice collectors back to the market.  There ought to be fascinating wines available at all prices in 2024.