Wine Advisor
Cos d'Estournel, Blanc 2015
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2015 Cos d'Estournel Blanc is absolutely delicious. Green apple, mint, white flowers and lime are all finely cut in a striking, beautifully chiseled white loaded with class and personality. The blend is 75% Sauvignon Blanc, 25% Semillon, with the Sauvignon clearly driving the wine's flavor profile and overall textural feel.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2015 Cos d'Estournel Blanc is brisk and nicely focused throughout. This is a beautiful, classy wine endowed with lovely energy and overall tension. In this vintage, the emphasis seems to have been on maintaining freshness, which comes through in the wine's vivacity. Green orchard fruit, sage and mint add the closing shades of nuance.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2015 Cos d'Estournel Blanc is a blend of 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Sémillon, picked between 14 and 29 September at a low 29 hl/ha. It has a charming bouquet with lime flower, apricot blossom and just a touch of blood orange. There is a sprightliness to this wine. The palate is crisp and fresh with a fine bead of acidity, plenty of tension here and perhaps more precision than previous vintages that I have tasted since its debut. I like the flow of energy here. This is an excellent Cos d'Estournel Blanc that should age with style and panache.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The Cos d’Estournel 2015 Blanc has an attractive bouquet with fresh green apple, apricot blossom and a touch of wet stone—to be honest, almost exactly how I remember it from barrel. The palate is medium-bodied with a pleasing, quite sharp and lively entry. This 2015 is underpinned by a fine line of acidity, a little spicier in bottle than in barrel, with veins of lemongrass enlivening the finish. This is a very commendable white Bordeaux that could be broached now, though I would prefer to leave it another couple of years.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
The 2015 Blanc from Cos d'Estournel is a blend of 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Sémillon fermented in 15% new and 85% second fill oak barrels and matured for nine months. It offers up scents of lemongrass, lime leaves and dill seed with fresh hay notes. The light to medium-bodied palate is very refreshing with earthy/savory layers and good length, finishing perfumed.
About the Producer
Located in the village of Saint-Estephe on the left bank of Bordeaux, France, Chateau Cos d'Estournel (also known as Chateau Estournel) is a second growth in the 1855 classification and is now recognized as one of the "super second growths". The history of Château Estournel is long and special, dating back to the end of the 18th century, when Louis Gaspard d'Estournel inherited a plot of land called "Cos" in the village of Saint-Estephe in 1791. He thus began to develop his winery. The property is located on a gentle rocky slope, "Cos" meaning "little rocky hill" in French, and the founder's surname, "d'Estournel The name of the winery is the result of the founder's surname "d'Estournel". Louis had a passion for wine and devoted himself to improving the quality of the winery, selling it several times due to financial pressures, only to buy it back after paying off his debts. In 2000, Michel Reybier and his family purchased the estate and have continued to write a new chapter for Château d'Estourde with the same passion and innovation. The vineyards of Château d'Estour cover 100 hectares near the mouth of the Gironde River. The mild maritime climate, the uniform sunshine and the smooth air flow contribute to the excellent terroir. The vineyards are covered with deep soils rich in gravel and limestone, with excellent drainage. Currently, two-thirds of the vineyard is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, with the remainder dominated by Merlot and a smaller percentage of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The average age of the vines used for the production of the main wine is about 55 years, and there are also some valuable old vines left in the vineyard, which can be 80 to 100 years old. In 2008, the new vineyard of Château d'Estour was inaugurated, the first in Bordeaux to be fully equipped with the gravity-flow method of winemaking. This is the first winery in Bordeaux to rely entirely on gravity flow to transport the grapes and the wine. The winery is currently equipped with 84 temperature-controlled stainless steel fermenters of different sizes, which allow the vinification of different plots and lots of grapes separately. Château d'Estour produces wines in the typical style of Saint-Estèphe, with concentrated and elegant flavors, rich layers, firm bones and a combination of complexity and finesse. Its main wine, Chateau Cos d'Estournel (Saint-Estephe, France), is a regular high scorer on the lists of major wine critics and wine reviewers. In addition to the main wine, the estate currently produces two red wines, including the secondary wine Pagodes de Cos (Saint-Estephe, France), and one white wine.
