Bordeaux 2009 at Four Years: St Estèphe
This is an interesting commune in this vintage, not least because we can see here the evolution of style at the appellation’s two leading estates. First, looking out across the Jalle de Breuil towards the vines of Pauillac, and those of Château Lafite-Rothschild especially, there is Château Cos d’Estournel. This property, which at the time was still under the management of Jean-Guillaume Prats after its purchase by Michel Reybier, had given us some stellar wines in top vintages such as 2005, and it had put in good performances in lesser years such as 2006 and 2007. Then in the 2008 vintage the wine began to feel a little different, with more roasted fruit and a huge seam of tannin, and although I thought the wine said much more about Cos d’Estournel than it did about St Estèphe (i.e. it seemed to speak more of winemaking, than the soil) I still thought it a good wine. It was only in the 2009 vintage that the modern-day Cos d’Estournel appeared, a caricature wine brimming in exuberant forest fruit flavour, dripping in hard tannins and showing its alcohol off to all to see. Well, that was what I thought during the primeurs, anyway; I went as far to say that Cos d’Estournel might give a knock to Pavie’s crown of controversy, the one that it has worn as king of the controversial wines ever since the Parker-Robinson spat of 2003.
Unfortunately I couldn’t visit Château Montrose during the 2009 primeur tastings and so this is the first time I have encountered the 2009. Having said that, this estate has produced some stunning wines, with both the grand vin and second wine being of tip-top quality in 2010, and the 2008 is no layabout either. Perhaps even more telling are the estate’s successes in 2011 and 2012, two very difficult years; in both of these vintages, the wine is of remarkably high quality. In my opinion this estate is on a roll at the moment, and the high quality of the 2009 tasted here only reinforces this view.
