2ème Cru Classé

Owner: Michel Reybier

Administrator: Jean-Guillaume Prats

Manager: Dominique Arangoits

In the old Gascon language, the word Cos means the hill of pebbles. Between Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe, separated from Château Lafite by the stream known as La Jalle du Breuil, the hill of Cos dominates the Gironde from the height of almost 65 feet. Born in 1762 during the reign of Louis XV and died in 1853 under Napoleon IIII, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel, who inherited a few vines near the village of Cos, had one sole passion: Cos. Louis Gaspard d’Estournel became known as the Maharajah of Saint-Estèphe. To celebrate his distant conquests, he had exotic pagodas erected over his cellar. In 1852, overwhelmed by debts he had accumulated in order to extend and beautify the estate, he was obliged to sell Cos to a London banker called Martyns. In 1855, the work of Louis Gaspard d’Estournel was consecrated by the imperial classification of 1855 placing Cos d’Estournel at the head of Saint-Estèphe. In 1869, the chateau was sold to the Errazu, an aristocratic Basque family, than to the Hostein brothers in 1886 and to Fernand Ginestet, one leading Bordeaux wine merchant, in 1917. The chateau has been belonging to Michel Reybier since 2000. In 2002 was constructed a new winery with a liquid CO2 cooling tunnel, small 19 to 115 hectolitre isothermal stainless steel cone-shaped tanks and four 100 litre «lift-tanks» used to replace the traditional pumping over process. Cos d’Estournel has become, in the eyes of lovers of fine wines, the archetype of a certain style of masculine elegance in which immense power is combined with grace and smoothness. Impressive when young for the intensity of its structure and explosive fruit, Cos d’Estournel evolves slowly to arrive, when completely mature (after ten to thirty years) at an admirable smoothness and aromatic complexity. Great vintages can be exceptionally long-living, exceeding a century.