The pagodas above the vines at Cos d'Estournel were put up in the 1830s by Louis-Gaspard d'Estournel, who sold his wine into India and came home with the architecture. The estate sits at the southern tip of Saint-Estèphe, looking straight across the parish boundary at Lafite, and its wine has always been the most exotic and spice-scented of the commune.
By 1978 Bruno Prats was in charge, and the run of vintages he made through the late 1970s and 1980s restored Cos to the front rank of the Second Growths. The year itself is famous: a dismal summer saved by ten unbroken weeks of sunshine from mid-August, giving ripe, firm, long-lived wines on the Left Bank.
This is one of the vintages that built the estate's modern reputation, and it has been lying in a cellar ever since.
-
Producer: Château Cos d'Estournel
-
Vintage: 1978
-
Appellation: Saint-Estèphe AOC
-
Format: 75cl
-
Region: Bordeaux, France
-
Style: Red
Where it is likely to be now. 1978 Médocs were built to keep, and a bottle at this fill should still be firm and complete at forty-eight, though every wine of this age has to be taken on its own terms.
Who it suits. Right for a forty-eighth birthday in 2026, and a strong choice for a gift to someone who follows Bordeaux and will recognise the vintage.
Condition. Very slight bin-soiling on the label and a fill between very top shoulder and base of neck — about as good as a 1978 gets, and the fill is what matters.
Provenance. Bought to order from a professional European merchant. We check fill, label and capsule when the bottle reaches us and photograph it before it ships.
Delivered in 7 to 10 working days, tracked. Transit cover can be added at checkout.
Sold as a collectible item, as seen. No guarantee is given on drinkability.
