2015 Château Cos d'Estournel

The 2015 Cos d'Estournel remains broody on the nose, with blackberry and pencil shavings as I observed several years ago. Indeed, this does not appear to have moved on much in the interim. The palate is medium-bodied with sapid black fruit, melted tar and spice. This has less tertiary notes than I recall and it's more linear and "correct" toward the finish. Give this another two or three years. The bottle served blind at Farr's 10-Year-On did not show as well, possibly because I feel this needs a long decant/aeration. Tasted at the 2015 Ten-Year-On tasting at Bordeaux Index.

A kick and a squeeze of brambled fruit sets the opening notes, and this captures the exuberance of the vintage, slowed down by a slate scrape expression of the tannins, together with cumin, cigar box, crayon and black pepper spice. Well judged, more luscious than many in this corner of the Médoc in 2015 and it works, delivering concentration and ageability. Scores higher than its 2014, unusually for St Estèphe. Michel Reybier owner, Aymeric de Gironde director.

Tasted blind. Aromatic. Polished. Tea-leaf flavours and rather suave for a 2015 St-Estèphe. Clean and fresh. A good drink. Racy with lots of interest. (JR)