With Hart, YZ, Sloke and PF. First wine night at my new place 🙂

My, CosDE has my heart. What a beautiful wine.

I just want to put this out there, and if you are into aging wines, this matters to you: Cos d’Estournel uses the industry’s best corks. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve seen 20-30 year old bottles with consistently flawless corks. It’s ridiculous.

But the cork isn’t the star of the show. This beauty of a wine is.
Slow oxed in bottle for 2 hours, and drank over the course of about 3.5 hours.

In the glass: deep inky ruby, with just the slightest hint of garnet on the rim. Full bodied.

On the nose: with 1.5hrs of air, a savory herbal note, with a ton of tobacco. Blackcurrant and blackberries. At about 2+ hours of air in bottle, this dark fruits intensified. It became rounder, deeper and denser. So savory, so herbal, so much iron. Mild spices. Again, the perfectly balanced oak at the background.

On the palate: mid acidity, with this intensity of fruit. Palate coating, and just this delicious long finish. Tannins were present but already well resolved.

The ONLY thing about this bottling: unlike the 1995 which unfurled with an incredible stamina of fruits in the glass, this 2008 seemed to lose its rich savory fullness when exposed to too much time and air in the glass. Almost seemed like it was more beautiful if served in small pours.

But my gosh, the sheer beauty and complexity of @cosdestournel is just, unmatched.