Château Cos d'Estournel - 1996

My good friends served this wine with Sunday lunch recently. I am lucky to have such good friends. This was one of the best Bordeaux reds I have ever tasted. 1996 was a very good vintage. Château Cos d'Estournel is located in the commune of Saint-Estèphe which borders onto Pauillac to the south. The Château itself is a magnificent sight. The wine is a second class growth but in no way does it have a second class taste or quality. The 1996 vintage is ready for drinking now; it is highly concentrated wine which is full of fruit with a strong nose and taste of cloves and vanilla. The wine has extremely long length on the palate and the tannins are softening and ripening. Even so, this wine could easily be kept ten years longer.

My wife and I tasted it blind and I guessed that it was from either Pauillac or St Julien but I was not surprised when I was shown the bottle. This was not a bad guess as I have not drunk a lot of wine from Saint-Estèphe. How anyone could narrow the commune down further I do not know?  But, you would have had to have drunk or tasted an awful lot of wine from the area. I was able to tell that it was exceptionally good wine from my training.

I looked up the prices of the wine on the web: a bottle of the 1996 vintage will cost you around £110.
Compare that to a bottle of 1996 Château Latour (Grand Vin) which is about 5 times the price. Château Latour is a brand name which is more highly prized by investors but from a drinkers point of view it is not worth the extra premium.

The price of Château Cos d'Estournel is also inflated by the fact that it is on investors' lists. However, if you want to have a taste of the high life and want to spoil yourself for a special occasion then it is worth the price. It is red wine heaven on earth.

Lucien Jacob 2008 Gevrey –Chambertin “En Songe” AOC.

I reviewed this wine on the 26th of March 2011 and wrote in my tasting note that it would improve with bottle age. See my blog of that date. Luckily my prediction turned out to be right; over the last 15 months this wine has improved considerably and the cherry flavour typical of Burgundy reds is really starting to reveal itself. The tannins are softening and this wine is starting to become elegant. A good English friend who is a connoisseur of Burgundy  agreed with me that this was a superb wine when we sampled it last March so I am glad to be in good company.

We drank this wine with some French family and friends, one of whom was a connoisseur of Burgundy, and her eyes lit up when she saw the label. She was not disappointed, the wine went down well with a free range chicken. Isn't great when your opinions are confirmed by experts from both sides of "La Manche"? Just like all good Burgundy, the wine also went well with cheese. We tried some Red Leicester from the village of Long Clawson in the county of, yes you have guessed it, Leicestershire. The Long Clawson dairy also makes some delicious Stilton. The village is well worth a visit if only to sample the cheese.

Lucien Jacob 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin “En Songe” should improve in the bottle for a good many years to come. Buy it, if you can find it, but be prepared to pay more than 10 pounds a bottle.

Torres Gran Coronas 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva

This is another superb wine from Miguel Torres, of Catalonia, who is one of my favourite producers. This wine is made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes blended with a small proportion of Tempranillo. The wine is matured in oak. There are hints of vanilla, liquorice and  stone fruits on the nose. The wine is at its peak for drinking both now and over the next four or five years. The nose is reflected strongly on the palate which has a strong and concentrated flavour of blackcurrants with tobacco, vanilla, liquorice and clove. The wine is medium to full body and the softening tannins are well integrated with the acidity. The concentration of flavours and long length indicate that it is a very good quality wine. It matched a superb West Country  roast lamb dish cooked by some French visitors. This wine has its own style which is strongly reminiscent of both Bordeaux red and Rioja red:  this flavour was slightly disconcerting at first but I soon forgot about it when I tucked into the lamb. The wine also went down well with a mixture of French and English cheeses. It competes well with both high quality Bordeaux and Rioja red.

I cannot remember where I bought the wine or how much I paid but it can be bought on the internet for around eleven pounds a bottle. Because of its individual taste, high quality and its ability to age well I rate this as a superb wine. It should not be taken lightly as it is designed to be drunk with a hearty meal. I recommend it highly as  it would be difficult to find a better wine at its price.