Andrew Jefford: Dark, dense black-purple; very episcopal. An exciting shudder of blackcurrant purity is the first thing you notice, and the second; then comes the sweet falling tobacco and plant sap layers behind the fruit, the cream, and the grace. It’s more open and more articulate than the Montrose at this stage, and it doesn’t have the quiet pressed leaf of Montrose; you can sniff that we’re heading over toward Mouton. Very pretty nose, in sum: bravo! It doesn’t quite have the “great vintage” breadth, and time has yet to unlock the wine’s complexities, though you sense that some of Cos’s hallmark incense will emerge in due course. And most of this goes for the palate, too, save that the fruit is perhaps a little less prominent here, and the moist-coal tannins are a little more prominent than one might have expected (though Montrose remains a wine of greater density and firmness). Anyway, the vintage has given a wine of great classicism, both as a fine Bordeaux and as, in the end, a St-Estèphe of sunny outlook. An outstanding effort for the vintage. 2019–29. 93

Michael Schuster: A suggestion of “fleshiness” to smell, but tight and closed; full, fresh, firm but fine in tannin; rich and full and still quite tannic, but with very refined tannins, and no asperity; ripe, generous, and fleshy within the tannin frame, aromatic and flavory, long and gently warm to finish. Ample, satisfying, top St-Estèphe. 2026–40+. 93