Cos d’Estournel 2019 released at 24% lower than 2018

Saint-Estèphe second growth Cos d’Estournel released its 2019 vintage yesterday at €110 a bottle ex-negociant, a price drop of 23.6% on 2018.

Cos d’Estournel has followed Palmer’s lead of dropping its 2019 price

As reported by Liv-ex, the wine is being offered by the trade at £1,368 a case, a drop of 23% on the 2018 release price of £1,776 per 12 bottles.

Cos d’Estournel 2019 has an international recommended retail price of 1100 HK, 139 CHF, 153 USD, 15 840 JPY. The chateau will donate €1 from each bottle sold to the hospitality industry.

With yields of 43 hectoliters per hectare, the 2019 vintage has an ABV of 14.02%, making it exempt from the 25% US tariffs on French wine.

The wine has been a critical hit, with James Suckling scoring it 98-99 points and describing it as “very powerful and structured”, and The Wine Advocate’s Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW giving it 97-99+ points and dubbing it a “masterpiece in the making”.

Cos isn’t the first estate to lower its prices this year. Ealier this week Margaux third growth Château Palmer released its 2019 vintage at €161 per bottle ex-negociant, 33% less than its 2018 opening release price of €240.

Given the current economic uncertainty, châteaux are responding accordingly with price drops in order to fuel demand. According to Decanter, 50% of the estate’s 2019 grand vin and second wine, Pagodes de Cos, have been released en primeur.

Estate owner Michel Reybier told Decanter that 2019 was a “miraculous vintage”, and the year since 2000 “that most reflects the terroir”.