Chateau Cos D'Estournel Collectors Tasting with Special Guest Owner Mr. Rafael Reybier

"It wasn't always like this. Before Paris, people didn't drink our wine. I mean, my friends did. But you could hardly consider their palates discerning..."

Bo Barrett - Bottle Shock 

We are big fans of Chateau Cos D’Estournel so when I heard that the owner Mr. Rafael Reybier was in town I knew that we had a lot of Chateau Cos D’Estournel collectors out there that would love to bring a bottle out of their cellar to share with our group tonight.

Our collector series tasting event is where we ask you, our wine drinking people, to come up with some wine from your wine collection to add to the party in exchange for your ticket to the event.  That’s correct the collector series tasting portion of the event is FREE, all it will cost you is one bottle of Chateau Cos D’Estournel from your cellar!!

Chateau Cos D’Estournel Collectors Cellar Tasting
with Special Guest Mr. Rafael Reybier
Monday January 27th
7:30pm

Let me explain further- this is a two part event:

Cos D’Estournel Collectors Tasting Part 1

The first part of the evening begins at 7:30pm, this is where we will be tasting through a vertical selection of 10 vintages of Chateau Cos D’Estournel. The price of admission is one bottle of Chateau Cos D’Estournel from your cellar, but here is the catch- we only need 2 bottles of each wine, so the longer you wait to respond the harder it will be to get a seat as you will have to go further back in time because the youngest vintages will be filled up by the first collectors who respond.

If you would like to attend the vertical tasting just respond to andy@winewatch.com with the vintage of Chateau Cos D’Estournel you would like to trade for your seat. 

**There are only 20 spaces available for this event.

Here are the vintages that we have already:

1961 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

1982 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

1986 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

1995 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

1996 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

2001 Cos D’Estournel St Estephe

2003 Cos D’Estournel St Estephe

2004 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

2005 Cos D’Estournel St Estephe

2007 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe 

2008 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

2010 Cos D'Estournel St Estephe 

2012 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

2013 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

2014 Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe

(I will add the vintages as people respond with the vintage they are bringing. 

Part Two: Dinner with

The dinner starts at 8:30pm (this part is optional but we will have extra wine left over from the tasting and we are already seated at a restaurant...) Toni Lampasone will be making a special menu for those that would like to stay for dinner and finish the tasting wines.  The fee for the dinner is $125 + tax.

Menu

Selection of Cheese and Charcuterie

Grilled Octopus in Lemon Mint Vinaigrette

Veal Bone Marrow canoe with lemon Parsley Gremolata

Venison and Shiitake Shumai with Porcini Crema

Duck Confit with Currant Demi and Pomme Frits

Canele Cakes with Rum Pineapple Sauce

Additional Wines for dinner:

Champagne Michel Reybier
Price : $95.00             Sale $83.60

Tokaj Hetszolo Dry Furmint Organic 
Price : $22.50             Sale $19.80

Pagodes de Cos 2009
Price : $135.00           Sale $118.80

Pagodes de Cos 2014 
Price : $87.00             Sale $76.56

Cos d’Estournel 2016
Price : $405.00           Sale $356.40

Tokaj Hetszolo 5 Puttonyos 2010 
Price : $85.50             Sale $75.24

A bit about Cos D’Estournel:
Cos D'Estournel lies across a marshy meadow and up a slope from what may be the world's most famous wine estate, Château Lafite Rothschild.  Cos has always been an odd curiosity among the stately châteaux of the Médoc, for the property is unlike anything else in all of France.  At the top of the hill with vineyards gently fanning down and out over the surrounding slopes sits the great chai - a fantastic architectural amalgam of Chinese gothic and French country château.  D'Estournel is the legacy of its first proprietor, Monsieur Louis Gaspard D'Estournel, who used to breed horses and ship them to the Orient.  Monsieur D'Estournel was inspired by what he saw on his many trips; the entrance to Cos D'Estournel probably best embodies the former owner's taste for the exotic and the unusual of the East.  The main door to the chai once formed the entrance to the harem of the Sultan of Zanzibar and is carved with vine leaves, bunches of grapes, flowers, and wondrous animals.  Three Chinese style pagoda turrets grace the structure, and a triumphal arch leads to the main road.  The visual impact is almost shocking in the context of its surroundings; one can just imagine the controversy it must have aroused in the staid and somber Médoc of the early 1800's.

Unlike its immediate neighbors to the South in Pauillac - who were producing wines of world fame by 1800 - Cos was a late bloomer.  Although wine may have been made on the property in the late 1700's, it wasn't until the early 1800's when, according to legend, Louis decided to sell some of his home-grown stuff on one of his trips to the Orient.  However, the folks back East didn't buy a drop, and he had to cart it all the way back to France.  At the conclusion of the lengthy round trip, he found that not only did his wine travel well but that time had softened it up marvelously.  It fetched a very high price on the Bordeaux market; and from that point forward, Cos D'Estournel was in the wine business.   Louis D'Estournel continued to improve Cos all the way into the 1850's and sold it just before his death in 1853 at a price equivalent to that paid a year earlier for the great Château Mouton Rothschild.  That Cos D'Estournel had risen to a position of prominence in that era was confirmed by the 1855 Grand Cru Classification of Bordeaux.  It was ranked a second cru as well as being rated the highest rated wine of the commune of St. Estèphe.

After Mon. D'Estournel's death, the estate changed ownership several times and was bought in 1919 by the Ginestets, one of Bordeaux's leading wine families.  The proprietor at that time, Bruno Prats, was a son of one of the Ginestets (his mother was the sister of Pierre Ginestet, the former owner of Château Margaux).  Prats spent his summers at Château Marbuzet, for there has never been a real château at Cos D'Estournel - only the great chai (the winery and barrel aging facilities).  In fact, it was not until the mid seventies that the word Château was affixed to the name; before that time the label said only Cos D'Estournel. Although Cos D'Estournel has always been considered the best wine of St. Estèphe, it was never considered in the same league as some of the great châteaux of Pauillac, St. Julien, and Margaux.  All that changed under the stewardship of Prats, and Cos has gone from strength to strength.  Excellent wines were produced there in 1978 and 1979, and the Château probably produced the greatest wine in its history in 1982 - it rivaled the wines produced by the first growths.  The 1985 was every bit as good as the 1982, this elevated the prestige of Cos D'Estournel to even higher levels. 

In 1998, the PRATS brothers sold Cos d'Estournel to the Merlaut family, the owners of the Taillan group, and to Argentinian investors represented by Mr Mayano.  Cos was sold again in 2000 and currently belongs to the Société des Domaines Reybier.  With this most recent change in ownership came Jean-Guillaume Prats, great-grandson of Fernand Ginestet and son of Bruno Prats who was also the manager of Cos from 1970 to 1998.  Since Jean-Guillaume as taken the helm many critics felt that Cos D'Estournel is producing a wine that is on par with the first growths of the Médoc! 

The production of Cos D'Estournel is approximately 20,000 cases a year of a wine that is built for aging, fairly austere when young Cos needs 10-15 years of age in a great vintage like 2001 and can last for upwards of 30 years if cellared properly.  The 2001 is a typically large-scaled Cos D'Estournel, but the wine still has remarkable elegance and approachability for a wine from Saint-Estèphe.  This may be attributable partially to winemaking practices, partly to the grapes in the final blend (the vineyard is planted to 60% Cabernet and 40% Merlot), and partly to the soil.  The estate's attributes are best described by the noted English authority, Clive Coates, who says:  "Cos is really a different wine from any other St. Estèphe...a wine which is somewhat softer and more elegant, less aggressively powerful...Cos, however, has both the power and finesse, both the body and the delicacy, both the backbone and the fruit”.  In the words of Clive Coates, "Grand Vin, indeed!"

Cos D’Estournel Available:

2016 Chateau Cos D'Estournel Blanc
Price: $165.00    Your Price: $132.00          Quantity in Stock: 4

2014 Pagodes de Cos d'Estournel St. Estephe
Price: $72.00       Your Price: $63.36            Quantity in Stock: 5

2013 Cos D'Estournel Saint-Estephe
Price: $182.50    Your Price: $146.00          Quantity in Stock: 1

2005 Chateau Cos D'Estournel St. Estephe
Price: $335.00    Sale Price: $294.80           Quantity in Stock: 7

2004 Chateau Cos d'Estournel St. Estephe
Price: $215.00    Your Price: $189.20          Quantity in Stock: 1

1961 Chateau Cos D'Estournel St Estephe
Price: $995.00    Your Price: $875.60          Quantity in Stock: 3

2015 Goulee by Cos d’Estournel Medoc
Price: $45.00       Your Price: $39.60            Quantity in Stock: 12

Other vintages of Cos D’Estournel:

Chateau Chateau Cos d' Estournel St. Estephe 2008
Price: $285.00 Sale $250.80
Chateau Cos d' Estournel  St. Estephe 2014   
Price: $270.00 Sale $237.60