15 Vintages of Cos d'Estournel

It’s not often I get to taste 15 vintages of the same wine. Actually — wait a minute — I’ve never tasted 15 vintages of the same wine at one time. Six or eight, sure, but never have I so thoroughly immersed myself into a specific producer’s wine.

Well, what a great producer to focus on with such intensity. Cos d’Estournel is an iconic Bordeaux house, located in the Left Bank appellation of St. Estèphe. The estate dates back to 1811, and was classified as a second growth in the 1855 Bordeaux classification. The wine is usually about 75% Cabernet with Merlot rounding out the blend, and the occasional shot of Petite Verdot and/or Cabernet Franc. The wine is cherished by collectors for its long cellaring potential and appreciated by wine lovers for its rich fruit and unique spice components. As such, they’re also damned expensive. I’ll leave the full summary of this heralded estate to Bordeaux guru Panos Kakaviatos, who recently profiled this St. Estèphe property on his blog, Wine Chronicles: Changes afoot at Château Cos d’Estournel.

Panos organized this stunning tasting for a bunch of DC area winos. I had an absolute blast chatting with friends old and new, not to mention Cos director Aymeric de Gironde, who was a fount of information and a really solid dude. For a man who oversees Cos d’Estournel and worked as a manager at Krug, he’s an unassuming and humble guy. 

The food from Chef Marjorie Meek-Bradley was, as always, phenomenal, and paired wonderfully with the wines. If you don’t know about her awesome restaurant in DC’s Cleveland Park Neighborhood, you should really give Ripple a try. I’ve had more phenomenal wine dinners at this restaurant than I can count, and the food and service are always remarkable. Also, she’s currently kicking some ass on this season of Bravo’s Top Chef, and I’m rooting she wins the whole thing.

All the wines at this tasting were stored in the chateau’s cellars since release. A few bottles were corked, so some of the pours from particular vintages were a bit smaller. I really wish I could revisit all the wines individually, but it was exceptional to taste so many vintages in one go. All in all, a most memorable evening. My thoughts on the wines are detailed below.

Opening Champagne

N.V. Michel Reybier Champagne - France, Champagne
This is a new project named after Cos Chateau owner Michel Reybier. It’s a richer style with toasty bread, baked yellow apples, a bit of grip to it with notes of salted nuts and white flowers. (87 points)

Flight 1

This course was paired with lamb heart tartare made with pickled mustard seed, caper and sea salt. Aymeric de Gironde described these wines as belonging to the "same family of vintages," and the wines all do show a similarity in grip and power, the younger wines showing a bit more austerity. Beautiful wines, the three of them, but the 2006 and 2008 are so young, and the 2004 seems to be opening up a bit, but, still, it’s best days are ahead.

2008 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Smells of warm spices, concentrated dark fruit. Bold and rich with dense tannins but some velvety aspects sneak through. Rich earth, roasted nuts, cedar, cigar box and underlying spices layer the dark currant fruit. Very young (I’d love to retaste in 10 years), but yet shows an undeniably attractive essence and a surprisingly creamy finish. (93 points)

2006 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Very similar nose to the 2008 but a bit more earth and spice. Rich and opulent with firm, chewy tannins and light acid. Concentrated but some silkiness starting to appear. Lovely earth, eucalyptus and sweet spice accents to dark currant fruit. Promising, but still very young and primal. (93 points)

2004 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
The most accessible and exciting wine in the bunch, this shows warm, deep currant aromas with cedar, pencil shavings and complex spice tones. Pure and vibrant on the palate, structured for sure but showing some freshness and precision. Black currant fruit doused with earth, tobacco, hints of mushroom coming out. Opens up with air, things are starting to get interesting here, and this will have so much more to show with more years in the cellar. (94 points)

Flight 2

This was paired with some spectacular glazed sweetbreads. For my palate, the 2005 was as close to perfect as I can imagine. I’ve never given a wine 99 or 100 points before (perhaps I will always be wary of doing so), but it deserves any superlative you could throw at it. The 2003 was also exceptional, and one well-known wine industry professional in the crowd maintained this wine was his favorite, not only of the tasting but his favorite Bordeaux, period. That’s the great thing about Cos: palates differ, but I think everyone had a favorite wine in this tasting that ranked way up there on their list of top wines from the region.

2005 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
A textbook example of near-perfect Bordeaux, as far as I can tell. Concentrated but elegant aromas, rich black cherry and currant fruit, accented by gorgeous earth, incense, dried floral and complex spice tones. So elegant on the palate despite the firm structure. Seems perfectly balanced between acid, tannin and fruit. Black and hints of red currant, the fruit is so pure and precise, and backed up by curling waves of incense, cedar, fallen leaves, graphite, mocha and cardamom. Simply phenomenal, and I bet it’s just getting started. My wine of the night. A real treasure to taste. (98 points)

2003 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Darker aromas, richer, blacker fruit with hints strong aromas of clove, earth, vanilla. Full and rich with dark currant and jammy black cherries, a full and rich wine but boasting lots of non-fruit complexity: incense, eucalyptus, loam, coffee, charcoal, bitter chocolate. Stands out for its dark, richness, but it's a gorgeous wine. Rich but so sexy, this seems to be flashing all its goodness right now. (95 points)

2002 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Rich with dark plums and currants on the nose, along with earth, cedar, leather and pepper. Full but smooth, the smoothest wine so far in the tasting, still rich but accessible, even bright. Still plenty of solid tannic structure, some brightness from the acid, very pretty currant fruit doused in wet leaves, leather, tobacco. Silky, starting to show elegance. My least favorite vintage of the night, which is saying something, because this wine is beautiful. (91 points)

Flight 3

Paired with potato gnocci with a wild boar ragu sauce with rutabaga and apples.

2000 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
The fruit here is so juicy and dreamy, black cherries and currants, laced with complex spice, herbs and cocoa powder notes. Full and still quite tannic but it glides across the palate and shows some freshness. Bold, chewy black cherries and currants, and I get a load of cedar, leaves, rich earth, cocoa powder, coffee, hints of toasted almond. Long, rich, wonderfully structured for the long haul but showing a lot of stuff tonight. Tasted from magnums. (95 points)

1996 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
This wine shows a unique brightness, and I get some red fruit on the nose as well as roses, tobacco, roasted red pepper. Full but silky tannins, bright acid, the black currant fruit is mixed in with some red currants, juicy and delicious all around. Complex elements of roasted pepper, white pepper, mossy soil, wet leaves, bay leaf, oregano, wow, the complexity and length of flavors is stunning. So long and nuanced. Pure bliss of a wine, showing tremendously well but plenty of time left to go. (96 points)

1995 Château Cosd'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Dark and juicy black currants on the nose, intertwined with cocoa, menthol, roasted chestnut and charcoal notes. Rich, plummy, saucy, but shows plenty of elegance as well. The fruit is slathered with spiced tea, menthol, fallen leaves, roasted pepper, and some toasted almond and cedar. Bold and still so structured but full of earthy complexity. At this point in the tasting, I wish I could spend all evening with this wine to really appreciate its nuance and evolution. (94 points)

Flight 4

Served with a stunning duck breast with foie gras grits and baby turnips. I was shocked by how much I loved the 1985. I wasn’t the only one, but there was a whole lot of love for the 82 (no surprise) and the 89. All were amazing, but for my palate, the 1985 stood out just a bit more than the heralded 82 vintage.

1989 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Crazy how young this wine still is, yet its elegance is so attractive. Smells leafy and herbal with dark currants and stewing spices. Full and chewy, still so structured with a firm tannic backbone. Pure currant fruit is matched with complex earth, anise, charcoal, gravel, cedar, tobacco and coffee notes. Another beauty, but this one is built for many more years to come. (94 points)

1985 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
This wine stands out for its bright, red-fruited approach. Smells tangy and herbal with bright red currants, red apple peel, violets, bay leaf, cigar smoke, floral perfume - an incredibly complex and elegant nose on this beauty. Bright and clean on the palate, with refined tannins and fresh acid. The red currant fruit is laced with rose hips, white pepper, cardamom, floral perfume, oregano and tobacco. Long, crisp finish, full of complexity. So bright and sexy, and showing wonderfully. Not the most heralded wine in the lot, but for my palate, the freshness on this wine is so damn attractive. (97 points)

1982 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Smells of complex red fruits and plenty of herbs, wet earth, tobacco, charcoal and roasted peppers. Smooth, vibrant, dusty, earthy, straight-up gorgeous on the palate. Dark fruits matched with a powerful mix of pepper, soy, cedar, scorched earth, roasted nuts, leaves, mushroom. The finish is like tasting the bottom of a well-stocked spice rack, full of so many complex and nuanced elements that are so fun to coax out and analyze. But it’s easy to simply sip this and become enveloped in the beauty of it all. Not my favorite wine of the night, but definitely a stunner. (96 points)

Flight 5

Served with aged gouda and date jam. These were all tiny babies, and I’d love to redo this flight in eight or ten years.

2012 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
So concentrated, intense really, this needs a decade at least but it’s a thrilling wine at this age. Smells dense and packed with currants, almost like a barrel sample, with some roasted herbs and espresso. Full-throttle and brick-like tannic structure, intense concentration. But the fruit is pure and rich, and I get lots of vanilla, coffee, toasted almond , graphite and paved road notes. I’d love to see what happens to this wine over its long life. (93 points)

2010 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
A bit "brighter" than the 2012 aromatically, but also intense and quite compact at this young age. Dense black cherries and currants on the nose along with coffee, roasted nuts and rich earth. Full and chewy with dense tannins but there’s also a vibrancy and cleanness to the wine that makes it incredibly attractive. Rich black cherries, currants, loaded with coffee, roasted nuts, gravel, cocoa, violets, pepper glaze. Long, full, incredibly long finish. Amazing aging potential here - it’s almost a shame tasting this so young, but it’s an awesome experience to taste this wine at this point in its lifespan. Ridiculously good. (97 points)

2009 Château Cos d'Estournel - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
A rich, brooding nose of black currants, even some blueberry, along with roasted almond and scorched earth. Full, rich, opulent, densely tannic and chewy on the palate. Chewy blackberry and dark currant, the rich fruit is matched with complex elements of coffee, earth, gravel, exotic spice, incense, leather. Chewy but velvety, smoky but nuanced, teeth-staining but exciting. Needs so much time in the cellar, but it’s interesting to taste this beast so young. (94 points)

On the DC Distilling Trail

Ivy City is littered with scrappy warehouses, pot-holed streets and, well, ivy, which climbs up abandoned buildings and wire fences. But this industrial neighborhood off New York Avenue in Northeast DC is home to a thriving scene: urban distilling.

Michael Lowe explains how Green Hat is made.

New Columbia Distillers kicked off the DC spirit buzz a few years ago with their Green Hat gin. (“DC Distiller Brings Spirit Back to the Capital”). Owner and founder Michael Lowe got bored with retirement after a career as an attorney, so he decided to open a distillery, which is located at 1832 Fenwick Street NE. After an apprenticeship in Washington State, he is proud to be at the helm of this “grain to glass” distillery. “We wanted to control the whole process,” he said, everything from the source of the raw ingredients to the final botanical blend.

Green Hat gin starts off with soft red winter wheat from Virginia — 1,200 pounds per batch of gin. Lowe uses a custom copper pot still from German maker Carl to distill their spirit. So far Green Hat has bottled two spirits. The “Spring/Summer” gin, their staple, is flavored with a blend of 12 botanicals. It has a really spicy and floral aroma, and a pleasant citrus and pepper twist on the palate. The “Fall/Winter” blend is a more intensely herbal gin, with less grapefruit and citrus peel and more spice, stemming from the addition of caraway, dill and star anise.

The standard gin works well with the classic citrus-dominated cocktails, a tonic, a fizz or a Tom Collins. I’d be happy to sip some of the winter blend on the rocks or perhaps mix up a martini with some vermouth and a stuffed olive.

Paying homage to the mid-Atlantic’s long history of producing rye whiskey, Green Hat will put out a District-made rye in the next year or two. Right now it’s sleeping in American white oak barrels, and Lowe said the tasting panel is waiting until it’s ready to bottle. A Navy strength gin is also in the works.

Green Hat Gin is currently distributed in DC, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, but Lowe hopes to expand beyond this central area. You can currently find Green Hat at lots of DC-area shops and restaurant bars. Tours and tastings are available on Saturdays from 1-4.

It's not ready yet, but I'm looking forward to trying Green Hat's next spirit, a whiskey made from Virginia rye.

When you visit, leave time for the second leg of the trip. Right around the corner, the folks at Ivy City’s second distillery, One-Eight, are also working on some white spirits. Apparently, the route to a DC distillery goes through the attorney’s office. One-Eight is also the product of an attorney-turned-distiller, Sandy Wood, who left law for spirits.

One-Eight derives its name from Article 1, Secion 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which establishes DC as America’s capital city. Located at 1135 Okie Street NE, One-Eight has a great spot in a large brick building with a spacious tasting room, a long bar and a series of dining tables.

When I showed up during their Saturday tour and tasting, they were pouring two spirits, their District Made Vodka and Rock Creek White Whiskey. (Their Ivy City Gin was unavailable when I visited in late January, but will be available for tasting and purchase in February 2015.)

I’m not much of a vodka fan, but the One-Eight vodka is quite tasty and much more distinctive than your average mass-produced import. Made from corn, rye and malted rye, it shows a peppery kick on the finish. The Rock Creek White Whiskey (which is white because it isn’t aged in barrels) is made from rye grown in the surrounding states. It shows a rich and creamy body with flavors of malt and white pepper.

One-Eight opened to the public on January 10, but they’re already doing an excellent job connecting with locals. Open for tastings and tours on Saturdays from 1-4, the place was packed with interested guests during my visit.

If you’re hungry after sipping on some spirits, you can grab some food from one of the food trucks parked outside. And One-Eight has a lot more in store, including the release of a single malt whiskey, a bourbon and a barrel-aged rye.

If I was a bartender, I’d want all of these DC spirits on my bar. I’d come up with some DC-themed cocktails and spread the word that cocktail drinkers can go local.

We’ve yet to see DC’s full potential as a hub of urban distilling. Two more distilleries are slated to open in Ivy City this year alone.

We may not have voting rights in Congress, but DC spirits are alive and well. And it’s only going to get better.

DC Distillery Brings Spirit Back to the Capital

George Cassiday: my kind of businessman.

In my book George Cassiday is an American icon. Cassiday was a WWI vet who returned to the States and struggled to scrape by during the dark and dry days of Prohibition. But Cassidy figured out where the money was: bootlegging. It wasn’t long before Cassiday had carved out quite a life for himself secretly supplying members of the U.S. House and Senate with homemade spirits.

 

Cassiday would load up suitcases with liquor from a supplier in New York and smuggle them via train down to DC. A House Member gave Cassiday access to a secure basement office where he set up his spirits shop. His customers were the country’s lawmakers, supporters and opponents of Prohibition alike. The Office of the Clerk of the House quotes Cassiday as saying that Representatives were customers, “nearly every day Congress was in session and [I] had no serious trouble.” For ten years Cassiday supplied bootleg liquor to nearly four out of five lawmakers and “and exposed the hypocrisy of a Congress flaunting the rules it imposed on America.”

When Cassiday was finally arrested the U.S. House’s Sergeant at Arms described the man as wearing “a light green felt hat.” The media loved the story of this industrious bootlegger selling booze to the very people who had outlawed it. “The Man in the Green Hat” made his way into history, the American people made the hypocritical anti-booze lawmakers pay and Prohibition was repealed.

  

The spirit of bootlegging in DC lives on.

Cassiday’s (distilled) spirit now lives on Washington, DC’s New Columbia Distillery. The family endeavor is owned by Michael Lowe and his wife Melissa Kroning, and husband and wife John Uselton and Elizabeth Lowe. “In 2011 John and Michael were the first to bring craft distilling to DC,”they say on their website. “After a brief apprenticeship with Dry Fly Distillery, they located a home for their distillery in a 90-year-old warehouse near the Art Deco landmark Hecht Co. warehouse on New York Ave. When they learned the history of The Man In The Green Hat, they knew they had a name for DC’s own signature gin.”

And so we have Green Hat Gin.



Ian, my good buddy from high school and Northeast DC's ambassador extraordinaire, brought a bottle of this capital city gin over to my house recently. We watched a kick-ass boxing match and sipped some Green Hat on the rocks. The bottle has an urbage vintage look and a label reminiscent of a 1920s department store advertisement, complete with the batch number and handwritten alcohol content. Maybe it’s my pro-DC bias, maybe it’s my predilection for hand-crafted gin or maybe it’s my fascination with the history behind this label, but I think Green Hat Gin is special stuff.

On the Nose: The first thing I notice is a burst of lemon and Christmas tree. Classic aromas of juniper and tree sap mix with lime peel, grapefruit and a sweetness that reminds me of lavender. Basically, we’re talking about insanely complex aromas that jump out of the glass. 



I had the honor of tasting Green Hat's second batch of gin.

On the Palate: This gin is creamy and balanced, not sharp or biting in any way. It’s packed with lots of grapefruit and lemon-lime flavors, not to mention a solid dose of birch beer and pine snap. A hint of smoke lingers on the finish. The citrus balances the herbal characteristics so that no one flavor overwhelms the others.



Overall, this is a delicious gin. It’s so pure and focused, making it perfect for sipping on the rocks or using in citrus-driven cocktails. If you love gin’s unique blend of aromas and flavors, you simply have to try this stuff. If you live in or around DC, frankly, you have no excuse. We’re all familiar with the mantra of eating local and reducing our carbon footprint, so why not extend this logic to distilled spirits? I confess: there’s something inexplicably cool about sitting on my porch in DC and drinking a District-made gin, especially when it’s so damned tasty.

And Green Hat can add a new kick to classic cocktails like the gin martini, the rickey, the gimlet or a host of others. Green Hat even provides some classic and signature cocktail recipes on its site.

Apparently New Columbia doesn’t have a tasting permit yet, so they can’t pour samples from visitors. Hopefully that changes soon, because a trip to this distillery is on my DC bucket list.

Cheers to the District, to bootlegging and to gin!

George Pelecanos: DC's Crime Aficionado

“Three teenage boys cruised the streets in a Gran Torino drinking beer, smoking weed, and listening to the radio.” It doesn’t take much to imagine how this scene could go wrong.

And it goes very wrong.

Although it takes place over the course of thirty years, George Pelecanos’ novel “The Turnaround” is really about that one night in the 1970s, when three white kids the Maryland suburbs get into a car and drive south into The District, looking to taunt some black kids. The worlds of three white kids and three black kids collide, and like atoms the collision creates a massive explosion. One dies, one goes to prison, one is permanently injured, but all are scarred for life.

Thirty years later, the events of that night still haunt everyone involved.

Best known for his screenwriting works like HBO’s “The Wire” and “Treme,” Pelecanos wields words like they’re weapons. This isn’t crime genre fiction (although there’s a lot of crime involved). It’s literature, and the best works of literature always involve crime. Pelecanos knows crime, and it shows in his writing. In addition the twists of plot, the depth of characters and the breadth of socio-political issues addressed in this novel, it’s simply damn well written.  

While horrifying and startling, this novel is also filled with hilarious ruminations on life in DC. Puffed-up lawyers speak condescendingly to food service staff. People shop for groceries at run-down Safeway stores. There’s an incredible dissection of the history and cultural intricacies of DC’s neighborhoods.

While it feels so much like DC, there are some great references in this novel that show how much the area has changed since the 1970s. For example, Shady Grove, now a sprawling suburban hell at the west end of Metro’s red line, is referred to as farmland.

One character in the book expresses what I assume is the author’s views on most crime genre fiction. It was “a fascistic genre because in these shows the criminals were always apprehended, and the police and prosecutors always won. The shows were warning the citizens, in effect, to stay in line. That if they dared to break the law, they would be caught and put in jail.”

While it’s true that some crime doesn’t pay, other crime does. And Pelecanos’ book is anything but fascistic. It tells the truth about violence, crime and resentment, which is something you don’t find in the Washington Post very often. Put down the newspaper, stop watching violence on the 11:00 news, and pick up this book. This portrayal of DC crime is much more realistic.