Chateau Cos d´Estournel 2003

JAMES SUCKLING: "A dense and powerful wine as always with very ripe fruit yet an underlying freshness and complexity with tobacco, dried fruit and fresh spices such as lemon grass and Thai basil. Layered and long. Drink or hold."

THE WINE ADVOCATE: "Two terrific efforts from this vintage, the 2003 Cos d’Estournel (70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Merlot and the rest Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc) remains one of the superstars of the vintage. It offers an opaque ruby/purple hue as well as notes of incense, camphor, licorice, creme de cassis and graphite. Full-bodied, opulent, incredibly fresh and well-delineated, it can be consumed now and over the next decade. Kudos to the team at Cos d’Estournel."

WEINWISSER: "Dunkles Rubin-Purpur, satt in der Mitte. Wuchtiges, zu Kopf steigendes Bouquet, Red-Currant-Noten, fast etwas marmeladig, Amarenatouch und Vanille von hell gerösteten Barriques. Im Gaumen drogenhaft, komplex, wieder recht viel rotbeerige, aber doch reife Eindrücke, Komplex, mit wahnsinnig viel Power ausgestattet, hyperkonzentriert. Irgendwie kein Cos, auch kein Bordeaux, im Moment weist alles eher auf einen grossen Châteauneuf hin. Letztendlich kann aber einem Winzer nicht vorgeworfen werden, dass sein Wein nicht wirklich typisch ist, wenn die Natur es anders vorgibt. Wird in der vollen Genussphase wohl wieder (wie bei den Fassproben) die Maximalnote erreichen."

THE WINE CELLAR INSIDER: "Not quite as opulent and showy as previous bottles, still there was more than enough to get excited about here. The wine is packed with lusciously textured, ripe, sweet, black and dark red fruits, smoke, Asian spice, wet earth, licorice and cigar box aromas. Full-bodied, rich and palate filling, this is a true start of the torridly hot vintage."

WINE ENTHUSIAST: "With its aromas of new wood, spice and black fruits, this promises from the start to be a powerful, polished wine. It is dense, very ripe (from the high percentage of Merlot in the blend), but still packed with tannins. It's a massive wine, bringing together the heat of 2003 with the big tannins of Saint-Estèphe."

WINE SPECTATOR: "This sports a pretty juicy edge, with dark currant and fig flavors and a hint of bramble in the mix. Ample tobacco, ganache and humus notes add range and character, leading to a long, smoldering finish. The slightly grainy structure is the only blip here.—Blind '01/'03/'05 Bordeaux retrospective (December 2017). Drink now through 2030. 15,000 cases made."

DECANTER: "Excellent quality and surprisingly fresh given the vintage, this wine is clearly ready to drink now, however there’s no rush to drink this urgently - one of the key markers of a great Bordeaux wine is that, even if it evolves quickly, it reaches a point where it stops and sticks – and I feel that is what we have here. Expect the full array of soft leather, truffle, spice and fig. In early August, technical director Dominique Arangoïts remembers smelling cooked fruit in the vines at night-time. The levels of malic acid were one of the lowest on record, and the alcohol fairly reasonable also. This has aged far better than expected, no doubt helped by the proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as the clay subsoils of St-Estèphe and the old Merlot vines (between 80 and 100 years old). The harvest was finished by 25 September, earlier than most in the appellation. Drinking Window 2018 - 2028"

JANCIS ROBINSON: "Dark bricky garnet. Rich and spicy with dried-fruit aromas but also a leafy note. Fine-grained, dry but not at all drying. More elegant than many. Lively and harmonious and attractively dry. Finesse and decent freshness to the end."