Château Cos d’Estournel

” With minarets clustered on its hillsides,
Spreading its eastern fronts to the skies,
Proud to be the nabobs’ supreme delight,
Here is Cos-d’Estournel, who may walk the equal
Of all the greatest classified growths of the Gironde,
Shining with a vivid glory throughout the world. ”
The wine poet Biarnez was right to stress the worldwide renown of the wines of Château Cos d’Estournel, for there is no taster of great wines who does not know intimately this label and the unique wine it dresses, all body and finesse, sap and generosity, harmony of bouquet, balance of taste.
This gravel rise that runs alongside the road from Lafite to Cos is itself an admirable soil, destined for a very great vineyard. There is never too much water in winter thanks to the slope and the regular depth of the Eocene subsoil, but the density of the sand-bound stone knows how to retain enough moisture on the hottest days of summer.
The average production is 250 tonneaux.
Generations of cellar masters and winegrowers maintain the traditions and prestige of this cru. All of these elements, together with a shrewd commercial policy, result in a total success that is admired by professionals and informed enthusiasts alike.
The architecture of Cos d’Estournel is equally astonishing with its pinnacles, which recall the time when the owner of the day, M. d’Estournel, went to deliver his wines to India and Arabia, whence he brought back wild horses that he raised on the fine meadows still attached to the vineyard. He sometimes kept a few casks on board the ship without wishing to sell them, and some chroniclers regard him as the originator of the fashion for “Retour des Indes” wines.
The new cellar at Cos d’Estournel is the fruit of many years of joint reflection by the château’s technical team and the architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte. This work resulted in a project unique in Bordeaux and in the world’s vineyards, an exclusively gravity-fed cellar from which every pump has been banished, the primary aim being to return to the essential, to be able to work in the purest respect for the grape and hence for the expression of terroir.
The isothermal, truncated-cone stainless steel vats of the vat room are models of thermal inertia. Their varied capacities, from 19 to 115 hectolitres, allow meticulous plot-by-plot work thanks to a precise study of the vineyard. From the reception of the harvest to bottling, the wine is gently moved by gravity.