Based on 62% Cabernet Sauvignon and 38% Merlot, the deep purple-hued 2020 Chateau Cos D'Estournel has, dare I say, an almost Lafite-like sense of elegance and class, offering gorgeous cassis and darker currants fruits as well as tobacco, lead pencil, acacia flowers, and graphite. Hitting 13.46 alcohol, with a pH of 3.9 and an IPT of 80, this flawless, full-bodied, incredible elegant Saint-Estephe has silky tannins, perfect balance, and a great, great finish. It will need a decade of cellaring to hit its prime drink window. Of the trilogy of 2018, 2019, and 2020, it's clearly my favorite (that’s splitting hairs), with a similarity to the 2016, and will most likely merit another point at maturity. Best After 2033

A brooding and deep wine just on the nose, with blackcurrants, redcurrants, spices such as cardamom and nutmeg, as well as black truffles with earth. Complex. Full-bodied with fine yet chewy tannins, that are wonderfully interwoven. Very structured and long. Needs five to six years to come around. 62% cabernet and 38% merlot.

97pts Decanter

You need to take a little time to let the concentrated flavours seep out, this is a long hauler. The tannins build slowly but surely through the palate, sombre and serious right now, particularly for an estate that is known for its exuberance. The opulence is there if you give it time, and as the tannins elongate and relax, richer notes of bilberry fruits, toasted cedar, salted chocolate, turmeric and black pepper spice arrives. Harvest September 10 to 24. A 3.9pH is the highest since 2003, but any threat of low acidity is balanced by high tannins, and relatively low alcohol. A yield of 39hl/ha (43hl/ha in 2019). Barrel Sample: 97

This wine’s complex structure and powerful tannins are shot through with freshness. It is already impressive, the spice and black fruits in harmony with the texture.

94pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The 2020 Cos d'Estournel is a bold, demonstrative wine, bursting with aromas of cassis, dark berries and plum liqueur mingled with exotic spices, burning embers and petals, framed by a generous application of creamy new oak. Full-bodied, broad and low acid/high pH in style, it's rich and extracted, with a layered, mid-palate and a long, clove-inflected finish. While it isn't anywhere near as extreme as the 2009, the 2020 does appear to mark a move back toward a more turbo-charged style after Cos d'Estournel's shift toward elegance, exemplified by the brilliant 2016—but perhaps that's merely an illusion created by the vintage? Best After 2025

94pts Wine Spectator

A broad, rich, enticing wine, built on a core of exotic mulberry and loganberry notes laced with black tea, spices and incense. Rounded through the finish, with the fruit cruising through under a suave gloss of toast. A real crowd-pleaser, with a luxurious feel that makes this hard to lay off of now.

Blend: 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot

The Barrel Sample for this wine is above 14% ABV.