Chateau Cos d'Estournel St-Estèphe 2. Cru Classé 2005

James Suckling

The purity of fruit in this is fascinating with plums, currants and other dark fruits. Then there is another layer of spices and chocolate. So much cassis. Full and very layered with chewy polished tannins and a long, long finish. Just starting to open. Changes all the time.

Jeb Dunnuck

A lesson in genuinely great wine, the 2005 Cos d’Estournel is a monster of a wine that delivers an incredible level of opulence and decadence while staying weightless and elegant on the palate, with no sensation of heaviness. This is what truly great wine is all about. Based on 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, and the final 4% Cabernet Franc, this dense ruby/plum-hued Saint-Estèphe offers up a monster bouquet of blackcurrants, unsmoked tobacco, licorice, toasted bread, classy oak, and cedar pencil. While it starts out reserved and almost understated, this is a wine that blossoms with air (I drank this bottle over two days, showing best on day two). Full-bodied, powerful, and decadent on the palate, with moderate acidity, it has a wealth of silky tannins, a stacked mid-palate, and a great, great finish. It reminds me of the 2009, if not an improved 1982, or even a slightly fresher 2003. Regardless, it’s a thrilling wine in every sense, and I fear with the focus on acidity and freshness in today's wine world, we might not see this style of great wine for some time.

Robert Parker

The 2005 Cos d'Estournel is blended of 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet colored, it is still a little closed and youthfully shy. With coaxing, the nose is just beginning to offer glimpses at vivacious kirsch, red roses, violets, licorice and mocha scents over a crème de cassis, blackberry pie and chocolate-covered cherry core with wafts of chargrill, mossy bark and truffles. Full-bodied, concentrated and wonderfully complex in the mouth, the palate is just beginning to reveal the true potential of this wine, with tightly wound layers of perfumed black fruits and earthy notions bound by a rock-solid frame of firm, grainy tannins and finishing with epic persistence. This still needs 5-6 years, but I love how this beauty is shaping up!!

Wine Spectator

Wine Spectator

#28 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2008: Black in color, with aromas of orange peel, new leather, currant, berry and Christmas pudding. Full-bodied, with layers of velvety tannins and a long, long finish of fruit and spices. The cashmere texture is all there. 2003 plus 2000 equals 2005.

Jeff Leve, The Wine Cellar Insider

This just keeps getting better and better as it slowly works its way to maturity. The wine is deep, full-bodied, concentrated and multi-faceted. The gorgeous fruit is perfectly ripe, sweet, round, opulent and fresh. Still youthful, give it 7-10 years and this will be a rockstar wine with all its sensuous textures accompanied by complex aromatics and a long finish, perfect to show off its purity and poise.

Tastingbook.com

Izak Litwar, Great Bordeaux Wines

Exceptionel balance and length. Just stunning wine. Gives 2009 a run for the money!

The Wine Front

Decanter

There have of course been great vintages since 2005, but the top examples from this year could be the greatest wines of the past two decades. The 2005 grapes were near perfect during the growing season, with flowering completed in three days, followed by similarly smooth and quick colour change and a harvest that finished on 9 October – a touch earlier than many of the neighboring estates. The percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend is among the highest ever at this château. It tastes much younger than the 2004 vintage right now, as you would expect, but it's the rich and complex layers that really express the quality. It has the sense of cramming a handful of fruit into your mouth straight from the hedgerow, with cassis and crushed blackberry flavours. The tannins are soft but doing their job, with wonderful layers of liquorice and slate. Brambly, cheerful and effortless, there's an almost wild side to this wine, both free-flowing and more than living up to its reputation. Good luck trying to predict when this wine will reach its end.

Wine Enthusiast

Saint-Estèphe has a reputation for tannins, and this 2005 Cos lives up to that. But it does much more, because the tannins add richness along with intensely ripe black fruits, dark plums and figs. The dense tannins are finely balanced with fresh acidity, and a long-lasting aftertaste. Impressive.

Alexandre Ma

La Revue du Vin de France

Vinous

The 2005 Cos d'Estournel is a magical wine. The aromatics alone as mesmerizing. Mocha, dried flowers, herbs and a whole range of deeply-pitched spice notes soar out of the glass. Explosive, deep and so full of character, the Cos dazzles from start to finish. Time in the glass brings out hints of rose petal, cedar and chocolate to round things out. Cos is one of the most exotic wines of 2005 and one of the vintage's undisputed successes. What a wine!

Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

Vibrant, with stately ruby red depths, touches of smoked oak, grilled cocoa bean and liqourice. This is powerful, with depths to the slate-strewn tannins. Tobacco, saffron, sage, crushed stones, baked earth, there is an opulent ripeness to the fruit, just on the precipice of tertiary. A lovely wine, big shouldered still with a few years before reaching its plateau. A few years ago I wrote of the Cos 2005, 'Good luck trying to predict when this wine will reach its end', and I still absolutely stand by that comment. 100% new oak.

Vivino