The Spiced Gates of Saint-Estèphe: Château Cos d’Estournel 2016

I pour the garnet wine into the decanter, watching the liquid spiral like smoke rising from incense. An hour’s patient waiting unlocks its edges, turning graphite into supple cedar. At 16–18 °C, the cassis and violets bloom as if warmed by spring sun after winter dormancy. In a tall tulip-shaped Bordeaux stem, the aromas arc upward, a slow incantation from the vine. I have long known the vine’s patience—six months among the underworld’s silence before my return—and this wine, too, speaks of descent and renewal.

Cos d’Estournel stands at Bordeaux’s northern threshold, in Saint-Estèphe where the Gironde estuary exhales its salt-kissed breath. The estate, founded by Louis-Gaspard d’Estournel—“the Maharajah of Saint-Estèphe”—wears its Indo-Moorish pagodas as emblems of his travels. Beneath the exotic towers, however, the land itself tells the truest story: gravel ridges tempered by clay, Cabernet Sauvignon dominant, with Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc lending shade and accent. The 2016 vintage here was forged by extremes: rains that tested root and farmer, then a golden summer that bestowed ripeness under skies striped with Atlantic breeze.

The glass holds both firmness and grace: blackcurrant, plum skin, and violet stitched with cedar and licorice. On the tongue, tannins—those fine, drying threads—grip and release, guided by a pulse of acidity that carries the wine forward like tide over stone. Its finish is persistent, mineral, and insistent, promising decades of transformation. Today it glows with youthful intensity; by 2030–2040, it will soften into shadowed silk.

Flame and Ash: The Carnal Pairings

This Médoc finds poetry not only in lamb, but in less expected treasures. Slow-braised wild boar, its dark, iron-rich flesh mellowed with juniper and bay, meets the wine’s graphite spine with resonance. Charred pigeon, glazed with reduced pan juices, mirrors the cassis and smoke within the glass—each bite a fleeting glimpse of autumn woods, each sip a renewal of strength. These are not pairings of convenience but of kinship, rooted in earth and game.

Silk and Spice: Crossroads of Flavour

Beyond France, the wine bends easily toward spice. Moroccan lamb tagine, dense with prunes, almonds, and ras el hanout, bridges fruit and tannin—the dried sweetness echoing plum, the exotic spice twining with cedar. Or consider Korean galbi, beef short ribs lacquered with soy and garlic: the marinade’s umami and char demand the wine’s acidity to cleanse and its dark fruit to amplify the meat’s richness. Here, East meets Médoc, and the dialogue feels ancient.

Verdant Shadows: The Vegetarian Feast

The vine does not withhold from those who forgo flesh. A truffle-studded celeriac gratin, earthy and creamy, resonates with the wine’s mineral depth, while butter and nutmeg soften its tannins into velvet. Charcoal-grilled king oyster mushrooms, brushed with miso and rosemary, echo both oak spice and herbal undercurrent, giving the impression of forest floor and hearth-fire in one bite. As in my own laments, sorrow and beauty are inseparable; here, bitterness and richness resolve into harmony.

Grain and Salt: The Edges of Indulgence

The finest echoes may lie in the humbler plates. A chestnut purée, smooth and faintly sweet, folds into the Médoc’s dark fruit, drawing warmth from its acidity. A slab of aged mimolette, crumbly and orange as harvest sun, presses against the graphite backbone with defiance, coaxing out hidden notes of tobacco and cocoa. This is no place for sugared endings; Cos d’Estournel is too stately for dessert’s cloy. Better to linger with cheese or roasted roots, where the savory pulse of earth remains unbroken.

I, Geshtinanna, have known the silence of the underworld and the flowering of spring, the descent and return. This wine carries that same rhythm: austerity balanced by grace, darkness folded into fruit. Honour it with patience, with the right glass, and with dishes that echo its strength. In its long arc of ageing, may you taste both the shadow and the light.