1997 Cos d'Estournel Saint Estephe 13.0%
Inspired by Jenise's opening of her last 97 La Mission, last night I opened my last 97 Cos (cos I was in the mood for that 20/30 yr experience in just 12), despite not having anything special to celebrate other than a fear that it would be past its prime. The backdrop was Eric Rohmer's wonderful A Winter's Tale (we're in the middle of watching his four "seasons" films) and the frontdrop was a cheese and ham soufflé.
The Cos was glorious! The pleasure began with the cork, affording considerable release by coming out smooth, stained only on the tip. I gotta say that one thing corks have going for them is the relief of finding a good one in an older wine. Sort of like installing a goat in your living room just to experience the relief of getting rid of it after a week... But I digress. From the bottleneck, classic mature claret leather and cigarbox come out and say hello! In the glass, pleasantly funky barnyard takes over, but dissipates after twenty minutes, leaving vanilla and sour blackberries in its wake, together with the aforementioned leather and cigarbox. A note of green develops, somewhere between pine and eucalyptus, courtesy of the cab franc, methinks. The tannins are well resolved, and the acidity is, at this point, already winning the battle against sweetness. But we were not there to bicker, suspending excessive judgmentality much as one suspends disbelief in a movie that convinces us to do so. Sigh, every now and then I get bored with the Bordeaux paradigm and then along comes a stunner like this to reimpose the faith. 1997 may no longer rock for most clarets, but this one is firing on all cylinders.