Château Cos d'Estournel 1990 Saint-Estèphe

A Château with an Oriental Air

Château Cos d'Estournel was founded by Louis Gaspard d'Estournel. He had a fascination with India, and his château has a character quite unlike that of other Bordeaux estates, with a distinctly oriental air. He is indeed said to have travelled to India himself to sell his wines. In more recent times the property underwent a major renovation in 2008.

By the middle of the 19th century the estate had become difficult to run, and from then on it passed from owner to owner. At the beginning of the 20th century it was bought by the Bordeaux wine merchant Ginestet. After being handed down through several generations of the Ginestet family, it passed to Bruno Prats from 1970 to 1998 and then to his son Jean-Guillaume Prats, who invested heavily and achieved great success in terms of quality.

Inheritance, however, is extremely difficult for family-run businesses in France, and in 1998 the estate was sold to the businessman Michel Reybier. Under the agreement Jean-Guillaume Prats was to remain at the helm, but in 2000 he became CEO of Moët Hennessy Estates & Wines, and so Mr Reybier took over as proprietor. Mr Reybier runs numerous hotels as well as a healthcare business.

Alongside Cos d'Estournel, he owns Hétszőlő in the Tokaj region of Hungary, and from 2013 he also began producing a Champagne bearing his own name. Mr Reybier's son, Raphaël Reybier, joined the château's team after training in Tokaj.

A Vineyard Managed as 20 Separate Parcels

Château Cos d'Estournel lies in the northern Médoc, just as you enter the village of Saint-Estèphe. The name “Cos” is said to be an old Gascon expression meaning “hill of pebbles”.

Facing east and south-southwest, the vineyard has deep clay-and-gravel soils with a seam of clay running through them at an angle. Merlot is planted mainly in the east-facing clay-limestone parcels, while Cabernet Sauvignon is planted on the upper slopes where drainage is ideal. It is this exquisite combination of exposure and soil that gives rise to such remarkable wines. The Cos d'Estournel vineyard contains as many as 20 soil types, and these bring astonishing complexity to the wines. With a thorough understanding of the character of each parcel, the vineyard is divided into small plots and managed with grape variety, vine age and sunlight all taken into account.

The average vine age at Cos d'Estournel is 45 years, though some vines are 80 to 100 years old. Older vines yield less and need more care than usual, which makes them demanding to work with, but they are essential to preserving what has been handed down at Cos d'Estournel and to maintaining the estate's style of flavour. The château also practises massal selection (selecting superior vines from the château's own vineyards and propagating them by grafting). This too takes time and effort, but it is considered the best way of safeguarding the château's wines.

A Wide Range Beyond the Second Wine

The first label is “Château Cos d'Estournel”. The second label is “Pagodes de Cos”. Up to the 2015 vintage it was “Les Pagodes de Cos”, but from the 2015 vintage the “Les” was dropped.

Then there is “Goulée”, a wine made from a separate Médoc vineyard 25 km north of the Cos d'Estournel estate. The first release was the 2003 vintage; lying just 10 km from the Atlantic, the site has a slightly cooler climate. A white wine is made as well, and since 2005 the white produced from the Goulée vineyard has been sold as “Château Cos d'Estournel Blanc”.