Be gentle please! Its the first time I've exposed tasting notes to the
real world.

1986 Cos d'Estournel

Picked up this bottle at a local Oddbins shop a few months ago and seemed
like a good weekend to open it. Colour was very dark though the rim was
just beginning to fade to a brickish red. Nose was quite dense and heavy
with some oak coming through but no overt single fruit. Initial taste it
seem very hot in the mouth, with firm but not overpowering tannins. Quite
full and I struggled to pick out any single flavour. With tasted with the
steak we were having it smoothed out and there was a hint of mint. Finish
was reasonable but I didn't notice it as particularly long.

It was an interesting wine to try and clearly has a long life ahead of it
though in hindsight probably a bit dear at £86 (about $140 at the time of
purchase, rather more with the current exchange rates).

Ian

In article >, "Ian Glover"
> writes:

>Be gentle please! Its the first time I've exposed tasting notes to the
>real world.

No need to be gentle, nice clear notes- thanks!

>
>1986 Cos d'Estournel Colour was very dark though the rim was
just beginning to fade to a brickish redNose was quite dense and heavy
>with some oak coming through but no overt single fruit. Initial taste it
>seem very hot in the mouth, with firm but not overpowering tannins. Quite
>full and I struggled to pick out any single flavour. With tasted with the
>steak we were having it smoothed out and there was a hint of mint. Finish
>was reasonable but I didn't notice it as particularly long.
>
>It was an interesting wine to try and clearly has a long life ahead of it
>though in hindsight probably a bit dear at £86 (about $140 at the time of
>purchase, rather more with the current exchange rates).

I had it several months ago, these were my notes:
1986 Cos d'Estournel (St-Estèphe)-still a deep colored wine, the nose was a
delicious mix of cedar/cigarbox, earth, smoked meat, and dark fruits. Very good
red berry and plum fruit. Still somewhat tannic, but with a hunk of red meat
all one could want in a Bordeaux. Fruit, acidity, and tannins made a nice
package. Wow. A

Our impressions aren't that far off, and once one takes into account possible
storage differences , and the fact that my friend decanted bottle for about 7
hours before dinner...

thanks again! I hope you keep posting notes.
Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

Salut/Hi Dale Williams,

le/on 16 Feb 2004 22:27:35 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

>In article >, "Ian Glover"
> writes:
>
>>Be gentle please! Its the first time I've exposed tasting notes to the
>>real world.
>
>No need to be gentle, nice clear notes- thanks!

Agreed!

>Our impressions aren't that far off, and once one takes into account possible
>storage differences , and the fact that my friend decanted bottle for about 7
>hours before dinner...

Cor, 7 hours!!! I thought _I_ was the one who decanted early!! Mind you, for
a wine only 18 years old from Cos....

If I'd been opening the wine, my immediate gut reaction (assuming high fill
levels etc) would be to decant it a couple of hours before drinking, and
taste half an hour before, with a view to re-decanting.

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website

"Dale Williams" > wrote in message
...
> In article >, "Ian Glover"
> > writes:
>
> >Be gentle please! Its the first time I've exposed tasting notes to the
> >real world.

Welcome to another UK punter. This is a good newsgroup, very good TN's, and
not too serious.

--
John Taverner
Solihull UK
134m a.m.s.l
"et in arcadia ego?"

In article >, Ian Hoare
> writes:

>Cor, 7 hours!!! I thought _I_ was the one who decanted early!! Mind you, for
>a wine only 18 years old from Cos....
>
>If I'd been opening the wine, my immediate gut reaction (assuming high fill
>levels etc) would be to decant it a couple of hours before drinking, and
>taste half an hour before, with a view to re-decanting.

In the case of the bottle I tried, my friend Larry had plenty of recent
experience with the '86, and felt several hours was way to go. 1986 is probably
the most tannic vintage since '75 (other opinions? Bill, Michael, others?).
Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

> 1986 is probably
>the most tannic vintage since '75

Yup - it can be a pretty hard little bugger, though I've seen some lately that
were quite approachable.

Here's my last note on it, from a Cos vertical (the Montrose vertical we did
easily surpassed it):

1986 - an excellent wine! Best nose of the evening, cigar-box, anise and plum,
huge in the mouth, puckering the sides with massive tannins, great depth and
length - this wine cries out "I am St. Estephe!" There was some discussion as
to whether it has sufficient fruit to outlast the tannins, and some people were
in doubt. I am not - I vote firmly in favour of this being a classic, but then
I am also a big fan of the 1975 vintage so that opinion should be considered in
that light. This wine was my choice for wine of the evening, but my opinion was
shared by only a couple of others.

Salut/Hi Ian Glover,

le/on Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:16:37 +0000, tu disais/you said:-

>> Cor, 7 hours!!! I thought _I_ was the one who decanted early!! Mind you,
>> for a wine only 18 years old from Cos....
>>
>> If I'd been opening the wine, my immediate gut reaction (assuming high
>> fill levels etc) would be to decant it a couple of hours before
>> drinking, and taste half an hour before, with a view to re-decanting.
>
>From Dale's notes I'd say that early decanting would have been the way to
>go.

Yup, especially with Bill Spohn's imprimature.

> I did consider it but was nervous of it going over the hill since I
>don't have much experience of Bordeaux of that age.

With great wines from good years, 18 isn't old at all. I'm not claiming the
vintages are even vaguely similar, but the 1st growth '61s are reputed to be
just beginning to show their quality.

> we decanted a couple of hours ahead (but didn't think of re-decanting), and you could
>notice it smooth out at the end of the evening (five-ish hours later).

Double decanting is standard technique at Lafite, apparently, and it's
always worth considering if a wine isn't coming round as fast as you first
expected.

>Ian

Welcome to the club!

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website

Dale Williams wrote:

>In the case of the bottle I tried, my friend Larry had plenty of recent
>experience with the '86, and felt several hours was way to go. 1986 is probably
>the most tannic vintage since '75 (other opinions? Bill, Michael, others?).
>Dale
>Dale Williams
>Drop "damnspam" to reply
>

I have always felt that a few more years of aging would cure the
backwards nature of a wine.
Am I wrong? Does a wine like the 86 Cos D'Estournel never come around?

>
>


--
Cork-O-Mattic
The Proper Stopper
Exclusive butt plug of
the Special Olympics

In article >, Bill >
writes:

> have always felt that a few more years of aging would cure the
>backwards nature of a wine.
>Am I wrong? Does a wine like the 86 Cos D'Estournel never come around?

Well, I thought it was damn delicious after the long decant. With plenty of
fruit left (the question with a hugely tannic wine is whether the fruit will
outlast the tannin). My guess is this will be a nice wine for a long time to
come.
Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply