1998 Cos d'Estournel

Cos cut yields dramatically in 2000 by sharply reducing the number of buds in May and June and then green-harvesting at the end of July, bringing in just 48 hectoliters per hectare, compared to 60 the three previous years. No concentration of the must was needed in 2000, said Jean-Guillaume Prats. "In 2000, we used some of our smaller old cement vats to vinify certain parcels," Prats went on. "In these containers the temperature climbs very slowly and thus we were able to do a longer maceration, with smoother, gentler extraction. This really paid off with the very ripe cabernet grapes in 2000. If there was any danger this year, it was overripe cabernet. On our clay-based soils, we didn't suffer from hydric stress in August." As I commented on the lush, pliant 2000, Prats admitted: "We're clearly going for a fatter style of wine."

This chateau became the first Bordeaux property to use both vacuum evaporation and reverse osmosis in the same vintage in its efforts to concentrate the juice in '98. The crop level in '98 was 58 hectoliters per hectare, according to Prats, compared with 60 in '97 and 66 in '96. Prats describes 1997 as a low-acid year, while '96 was especially high in polyphenols and tannic structure; the cabernet sauvignon in '96, he adds, was also quite high in acidity. 1998 is somewhere between the two earlier vintages in style. Cos created a stir in '98 by setting an opening price for its wine at a level 25% below the '97.