Chateau Cos Labory 5eme Cru 2025

Colin Hay om: Chateau Cos Labory 5eme Cru

(Saint-Estèphe; 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc; IPT 76; a final yield of 29 hl/ha; 13.4% ABV; tasted first at the UGCB press tasting at the Cité du Vin and then at Cos d'Estournel with Dominique Arangoits and members of the Reybier family; Axel Marchal is the consultant here). The third year since its acquisition. Though the vines are contiguous to Cos and share the plateau, their personalities reflect very different expositions. This is sombre and dark, with that lovely oyster shell and iodine minerality already revealed aromatically alongside the distinctly northern notes of heather, moorside herbs and dark berries – wild blueberries, mulberries, brambles and blackberries. This is amazingly ample in the mouth but soft and sumptuous, though with nothing like the seductiveness of Cos itself. This is a wine with a very singular terroir identity that is so much easier to read in this new incarnation. The tannins are ultra-refined and I find this luminous at the core without ever seeming artificial or polished. It feels very authentic, not least in its natural austerity. Pure, precise and focussed, I love the return to the sea-spray and iodine note that I rediscover on the finish as if for the first time.