1981 Cos d"Estournel. Wow!

[jal]

With some grilled Flannery ribeye, we had this tremendous bottle of 1981 Cos d"Estournel. Starts shy and tart but picks up very quickly with a dark inky color, amazing nose of earth and black fruit, on the palate, it is delicious with gorgeous dark berries, some dusty tannins remain but this will not get any better. Probably the best 1981 I've had since the Pichon Lalande. The finish is long and this wine is a perfect example why 80s left bank Bordeaux are so superior to anything else in the wine world. 95

[JimHow]

Oh man, now that's what it's all about.
Damn you, Robert M. Parker, Jr.

[stefan]

My mouth is watering!

[Racer Chris]

Awesome note, and a great way to kick off BWE Month!

[Musigny 151]

Just had the 1983 at our Zoom. I am not a Cos fan, but this was quite lovely.

Look out for the 1981 Trotanoy. In a really good place now.

[Comte Flaneur]

We should never forget that Cos is right next to Lafite, glad the bottle was special Jacques.

[JimHow]

I was just thinking the same thing, Ian.
There are times when Cos tastes like Lafite.

[jckba]

I think that the Saint Estephe terroir of limestone, gravel, clay and stone produces wines that more times than not need a lot of time to reach full their full maturity (thinking Montrose, Cos and Calon Segur) and it looks like Jacques caught this bottle of ‘81 Cos in peak form; nice note and the steak looks perfectly cooked too!

IIRC 1981 was shaping up to be a great Bdx vintage but I think some late season rains in the Medoc slightly changed that perception and then 1982 came along. Listen to Mark and look for some 1981 Right Bankers as they can be exceptional.

[AKR]

very nice

[Blanquito]

Sounds wonderful. I also just had the 83 Cos, which I really enjoyed.

[Comte Flaneur]

Cos in the 80s, hey?

The bottles can be so variable.

I have attended several Cos verticals from that era over the years where different vintages won as a result of bottle variability which left me confused and none the wiser about which 80s vintage of Cos (81-90) was the boss?

The 1982? The 1983? The 1985? The 1986? The 1989? The 1990? I have had great and not so great bottles of all of these but never had the 1981 before iirc, which I often don’t.

But I think we can agree it was a memorable decade for Cos, an estate which subsequently flirted with the dark side for a few years. One wine I am dying to try is the 2016 if I could afford it.

[greatbxfreak]

I've not tasted 1981, but this vintage was very close to being like 1961 if the weather behaved normally.
Unfortunately, rain in large quantities affected the harvest.

From the '80s, I only tasted 1985 and 1986, and both were beautiful wines rated by me in the mid-90s. Bruno Prats did an excellent job at Cos then.

[dstgolf]

Agree with Ian that the 80s are King and Cos certainly had a great run but they went to the Parker dark side through the 2000s staring in 2000 onward leaving their more traditional style to a New World blend that got quite awkward for my palate. At a vertical a few years back the 81 was a surprise up against the 82,83,86 & 89 where it more than held its own.

Steak looks great...another sous vide venture Jacques??

[jal]

Danny, we were invited at friends, we brought one steak and the Cos, they brought another steak and a White Burgundy and cooked, made a salad and appetizers.
It was a very stressful reverse sear at 250 for 45 minutes, then grilled for a few minutes per side. The steaks weren't cooked after all this so we put them in the over at 350 for 5 minutes. The fact that they were still great is more luck than science. Sous vide would have been much easier.

[Nicklasss]

Looks delicious. Remind me the Jal Pool Party of the 00's.

Cos + 80's = good memories for me. The 82 on Thursday night dinner at Denver 2019 was great. I had the 86 three or four times, always excellent and complex too. 83, 85, excellent too the times i had them.

[Claudius2]

Folks
I did a Cos tasting with Bruno Prats some years ago and recall the wines being consistently good.
My pick was the 1986 and bought a case at auction after the event. Wish I still had it as I sent the remainder of the case to auction when I moved. Bugger.

The 86 was firmly tannic then but had plenty of everything. 1990 was riper, more modern but also excellent in the context of the vintage.

The only vintage that was a bit weird was 1989 and I did not like it much but at another table they raved about it so bottle variation apparently applied. However Bruno could well have checked them all first.

The wines from 81 to 90 were all very good and after the 1986, I ranked them 1990, 1988, 1982, 1981 and 1985. I’d love to do the same again. We also tried 95 and 96 but I found them too young to realistically rate.

At a big Bordeaux tasting in the 90s, I tried a handful of Cos vintages including 86 and 90 and the estate was rated a 1er Cru when the wines were tried blind. I do know that the organiser had removed all corked or faulty wines first. From memory Cos, Pichon Lalande and LLC were all rated as 1ers Crus.

I just wish there were more tastings in Singapore. The COVID virus has stopped big events here but there were few in any event.

[Blanquito]

Cos in the 80s, hey?

The bottles can be so variable.

I have attended several Cos verticals from that era over the years where different vintages won as a result of bottle variability which left me confused and none the wiser about which 80s vintage of Cos (81-90) was the boss?

The 1982? The 1983? The 1985? The 1986? The 1989? The 1990? I have had great and not so great bottles of all of these but never had the 1981 before iirc, which I often don’t.

But I think we can agree it was a memorable decade for Cos, an estate which subsequently flirted with the dark side for a few years. One wine I am dying to try is the 2016 if I could afford it.

I thought the bottle of 90 Cos you brought to BWE Denver was sensational tipple.

[JimHow]

Test

[jal]

The 1989 Cos we had at Fabio in the 1989 wine dinner was stunning

[AKR]

Danny, we were invited at friends, we brought one steak and the Cos, they brought another steak and a White Burgundy and cooked, made a salad and appetizers.
It was a very stressful reverse sear at 250 for 45 minutes, then grilled for a few minutes per side. The steaks weren't cooked after all this so we put them in the over at 350 for 5 minutes. The fact that they were still great is more luck than science. Sous vide would have been much easier.

My family gave me a vacuum sealer which sucks air out + heat seals the bags, so that I could make sous vide meals easier. Unfortunately in a half dozen attempts, the machine works rather poorly, and despite all my googling/youtubing I don't think the issue is 'user error', which the manufacturer is quick to bandy about.

Old school ziplock sealing under water gets a tighter / less air solution for me. Of course the bag system was theoretically better for larger slabs of meat. The big trimmed tri tip roasts we get out west are pretty awesome when cooked sous vide, flash seared, and then kept in the fridge for roast beef sandwiches with a smear of horseradish.

[jal]

I'm on my second vacuum sealer Arv, the first one worked like yours. The second one, made by Anova, is much better.

[AKR]

Ahh. Anova is the bollocks

[jal]

Ahh. Anova is the bollocks

Ok I have no idea if this is a good or bad thing

[AKR]

[robert goulet]

Love these sleeper vintages...we popped a '91 mouton 6mos back...it was a delight, not as complex as a great pauillac can get, but exhibited that rustic masculine Pauillac charm in spades and for me, better then the 1988 chateau Mouton we had recently.


As for Cos (not an off vintage) but last yr we popped the '96, ... consumed blind I guessed Pauillac. It was firing on all cylinders.. awesome

[DavidG]

Arv's picture shows up on my screen as a question mark place holder, but I get the image if I right-click and open in another tab. Other pictures in this thread and others show up OK.

???

[jal]

Yes, same here David. I don't understand it either

I took a screenshot and posting it

[JimHow]

Love these sleeper vintages...we popped a '91 mouton 6mos back...it was a delight, not as complex as a great pauillac can get, but exhibited that rustic masculine Pauillac charm in spades and for me, better then the 1988 chateau Mouton we had recently.

Nice, Bobby, yeah, there are some nice efforts from the northern Medoc in 1991.

[Blanquito]

As the unofficial patron saint of 83 Bordeaux, I love threads like this. I might be tempted to add “shhhhh”, but I’ve been pounding the table about the 83s for years and the prices have hardly budged.

[jal]

1981-1982-1983 are the top three in a row vintages in my opinion, followed closely by 1988-1989-1990, and maybe but still to be judged the 2014-2015-2016

[AKR]

2000, 2001, 2003 were a pretty good run too!

[jal]

2000, 2001, 2003 were a pretty good run too!

Not in a row, and 2002 was pretty mediocre in the right bank

[DavidG]

1981-1982-1983 are the top three in a row vintages in my opinion, followed closely by 1988-1989-1990, and maybe but still to be judged the 2014-2015-2016

Yes, yes, yes!!!

[JimHow]

I wonder if 2014-2015-2016 will age similarly to 81-82-83, and other vintages of the 80s. I’m guessing not. I remember some great 81s, including Lafite and Mouton.

[rthomaspaull]

I don't remember having the 1981 Cos D'Estournel, but greatly enjoyed several bottles of the 1985 (as did others).

[Claudius2]

Jal
The term “bollocks” can be used to mean male genitalia or in the case of the Sex Pistols, it means a load of rubbish, as in the case of talking a lot of bollocks. Maybe bullshit would be a synonym.
The term was very common during the punk rock era of the late 70s though I’m not sure if it is still a common English slang term.
Cheers
Mark

[Racer Chris]

As Alex said in the Clockwork Orange, "Great bolshoi yarblockos to you!"

[jal]

Oh ok
So it's a bad thing, got it. I have only had good experiences with Anova, so for me it wasn't er... the bollocks.

[Racer Chris]

In Arv's first reference I thought it was intended as a Good thing.

[jal]

OK then, in the immortal words of Harry Belafonte:

It was clear as mud but it covered the ground
And the confusion made me brain go round.