Château Cos Labory St Estèphe 1855 5ième Cru 2023

The arrival of Cos d’Estournel at Cos Labory in May 2023 has got to be one of the most interesting purchases of recent years. There are of course similarities between the two properties – same hill, after all, and direct neighbours. But where Cos is east and south-facing, Cos is west and north facing. And they are taking on a seriously old school property, without even temperature control in the cellars (rectified on arrival, as you can imagine). There is a differennce in the quality of the aromatics from recent vintages of Cos Labory, and concentrated black fruits shot through with turmeric and sage spices, although the tannins are still austere and old school. The hard thing for Cos in my opinion will be to guard a little bit the style of Cos Labory, or you may as well put all the grapes together and just increase the production of the 2nd Growth. Will be fascinating to watch. Conversion to organics underway.