2009 Coufran, Haut-Médoc

SKU #1088686 92 points James Suckling

Outer quote mark The quality of the fruit and tannins are very pretty here. It’s full-bodied, with round velvety texture and a delicious finish. Very impressive. Inner quote mark (7/2014)

90-92 points Wine Enthusiast

Outer quote mark Firm tannins, but also ripe, sweet fruits, with a fine balance. While the wine is on the light, fresh side, it does have a good, final structure. (RV) Inner quote mark (4/2010)

Jancis Robinson

Outer quote mark Rich dark plum fruit but also meaty and savoury – a wine with attitude. Smooth and pretty dense, just about fresh. 16.5/20 points (JH) Inner quote mark (10/2011)

Wine Advocate

Outer quote mark This Merlot-dominated wine displays a dense ruby/purple color, soft berry fruit intermixed with mocha, and hints of white chocolate, herbs, and spice. It should drink well for up to a decade or more. (RP) Inner quote mark (4/2010)

K&L Notes

At the very top of the Haut-Médoc, embedded in a sea of gravel just next to the Gironde River north of St-Estèphe, sits the anomaly of the Left Bank: Château Coufran, the "Pomerol of the Médoc," so-called for its high propensity of Merlot vines in a region where Cabernet reigns supreme. While practically all of its Left Bank neighbors are making structured and powerful clarets, Coufran continues to make softer, silkier, classically tailored Right-Bank-style wines. Owned by the Miailhe family since 1924, the wine has been prized by those in the know for its early approachability and fantastic value, which is part of the reason it’s been a staple of K&L’s Bordeaux department for decades. Not only does the wine historically drink well at a younger age, it evolves beautifully over a five to ten year period. The 2009 is currently in a gorgeous spot, showing secondary development and complexity beyond the primary fruit of its youth.


Share |
Price: $21.99

Real Time Inventory by location:

The item you have chosen is in stock, and has inventory in our warehouse and one or more stores. Below is the current quantity on hand information for this product within our database. It is never more than five minutes old. Additionally, our shopping cart looks at real time inventory so when you add an item to you cart we will do an immediate check of available inventory and alert you if there are any issues.

Location Qty
Main Warehouse: > 60
Hollywood: 54
Redwood City: 41
San Francisco: 50
Product turnaround time varies by location of inventory and your chosen method of shipping/pickup. For a detailed explanation click here.

Related Items

Loading recommendations

Product Reviews:

By: Alex Schroeder | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 11/8/2023 | Send Email
Chateau Coufran, oft called the "Pomerol of the Medoc" with its 85% Merlot content, is a perennial staff and customer favorite here at K&L and offers unbelievable value in the ready-to-drink claret category. 2009 was a beautifully warm, ripe vintage, and Coufran is full of concentrated dark bing cherry fruit, licorice, herbs and leathery nuances. The nose is so perfumed and pretty, and the wine is balanced and fresh with good acid lifting the rich fruit on the finish.

By: Steve Bearden | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 9/30/2021 | Send Email
This shows the warm, baked character of the 2009 vintage to a tee and the wine is filled with ripe Merlot fruit flavors along with plenty of blackberry. The middle is firm, dark and deep but with no hard edges or aggressive tannin to get in the way of the pure drinking pleasure. Over 10 years bottle age and from a great vintage for less than 25 bucks!

By: Clyde Beffa Jr. | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 5/29/2021 | Send Email
Glass Full Glass Full Glass Full Glass Full Glass Half
Great vintage and a superb value property. Tons of blackberry aromas and flavors. Very ripe. Still drinking well. The ripe style of the vintage blends well with the rustic style of the property. We have sold over 7500 bottles to date.
Drink from 2021 to 2025

By: Heather Vander Wall | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 1/5/2018 | Send Email
This is an excellent Bordeaux from one of the top recent vintages, but coming from an under-the-radar winery in the Haut-Medoc. Chateau Coufran tends to use more Merlot in their blend, lending the wine some silky, black-fruited elegance which nicely counters the firmer structure and earthiness of the Cabernet from this region. Truly one of our best bargains for stellar 2009 vintage!

By: Jeff Garneau | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/18/2017 | Send Email
Chateau Coufran lies just north of St-Estèphe in the village of Saint-Seurin-de-Cadourne. There are 76 hectares of vineyards planted entirely on gravel soils close beside the Gironde River. Atypically for a Left Bank property, the grape varieties planted are almost entirely Merlot (85%), earning Coufran the nickname “the Pomerol of the Médoc”. I had the good fortune to taste a barrel sample of the 2009 Coufran at the chateau in 2010. The owner, Eric Miailhe, confided at that time that he considered it the finest wine he had ever made. Now, five years after bottling, the wine truly shows the strength of the outstanding ’09 vintage – very fresh with lively acidity and very fine, but still firm tannins. There is plenty of sweet fruit here with notes of fresh picked blackberry and damson plum. A terrific value from one of the great vintages of the decade.

By: David Driscoll | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/18/2017 | Send Email
It's great to see how this wine has come around over the years. We've been getting shipments of the 2009 Coufran since the vintage was released in 2012 and I've been slowly tasting bottles throughout the years, watching what was once a merlot-driven and supple wine from a ripe vintage mature into a savory, complex, and serious bottle of mature Bordeaux. Tasting it today, it's at its most profound position yet. The wine is much leaner than it was a few years back and has shed some of that baby fat, now resembling something with age from St. Emilion or Pomerol. For the price its tough to beat, especially when stacked up against some of the other $20 bargains we have in the store. Few, however, show as much evolution as the Coufran. This is a Wednesday night steak frites wine at its finest.

By: Gary Westby | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 8/18/2017 | Send Email
We have a few house favorites when it comes to Bordeaux here at K&L, and the 2009 Coufran, Haut-Médoc confirms why we love this property. For the Haut-Medoc, this wine has a huge proportion of Merlot at 85% and just a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon at 15%. In its youth, the wine had a big, ripe, plumy nose, but was still very elegant in the mouth. It reminded me very much of old fashioned Pomerol; medium bodied, pure, racy Merlot without the extraneous sugar and oak. At the price, too much of this wine was probably consumed too young, but the patient will now be rewarded with a great experience at a very small price.

Additional Information: