2021 Cos d'Estournel Blanc

The Grand Vin in white, the 2021 Château Cos D'Estournel Blanc includes slightly more Semillon and is 71% Sauvignon Blanc and 29% Semillon raised in 8% new barrels. It's a slightly more closed and tight white, revealing beautiful citrus fruit that gives way to more mint, floral, and chalky mineral-like nuances with air. Medium-bodied and balanced, it plays in the fresher style of the vintage but is still concentrated and serious, and it will benefit from a year or three of bottle age. It’s built for the cellar and will benefit from 2-3 years and drink well for at least a decade. This is 12.3% alcohol with a pH of 3.13.

The 2021 Cos d'Estournel Blanc is a big wine—rich, dramatic and expressive. Low yields in 2021 created a white that is deep, layered and quite potent in feel. Tangerine peel, citrus confit, marzipan and a touch of new oak give the 2021 a decidedly flamboyant, extroverted personality.

The 2021 Cos d'Estournel Blanc, bottled in December 2022, shows a bit of reduction in the glass, with touches of candle wax and lanolin infusing the yellow fruit, perhaps requiring a little more delineation. The palate is well-balanced with fine poise. This clearly has more tension and mineralité compared to the Pagodes Blanc, with a crisper finish. This is a successful white Cos d'Estournel that should age well in bottle, but one should afford it time for the aromatics to fully open.