1989 Chateau de Marbuzet St Estephe Cru Bourgeois

This wine used to be the second wine of Cos d’Estournel until 1998 when the Prats family, owner of Cos d’Estournel, sold Cos in 1998. Thus, the insider detail is that Chateau de Marbuzet wines were blended with some Cos in the past. I had a sip during my first pour, and I find the St Estephe character very obvious; full of concentrated tea leaves, structurally moderately skinny and lacked expression, but all this will change soon. Knowing the vintage 1989 as a very hot vintage in recent Bordeaux memory, this wine will definitely need some breathing, so I decanted it for two solid hours in the cellar. Guess what? It has morphed into a totally different character and there’s no looking back! The bouquet is stunning, very classic Bordeaux with matured fruits and a bit of leftover tea leaves. Content is equally great, with very expressive content; ultra-smooth, elegant and rounded, juicy and dark fruits driven, and surprisingly it still has a lot of tannins lurking around, implying this can easily age for two more decades. I did not have a classified growth next to this bottle to make any comparison, but I have no doubt it will not be any inferior drinking right next to Montrose, Calon Segur or it’s sibling Cos d’Estournel. Why spend so much money on classified growths when you can drink a much cheaper version and still extract full pleasure out of it? Just don’t forget, you need to decant the wine for two hours to enjoy this wine!