Chateau Cos D’Estournel 2020

This is a superb Cos: concentrated yet fresh, billowing with succulent fruit, yet with tension and control. The first impressions are of cocoa and cream. The estate’s own tasting notes speak of nutmeg and black tea, which are also evocatively present. The tannins are superbly defined and sufficiently authoritarian. They contain the wine’s core of ripe fruit like the bark of a tree, providing a saline bite, and tension to balance the generosity. This is a wonderfully dextrous expression in a year of extremes, and owner Michel Reybier’s 20^thvintage here.