The life of Louis–Gaspard d’Estournel de Lacoste de Maniban (I shall call him Louis for short) is so colourful and exotic, that it is tempting to devote most of this article to him.

Books could be written about him! However there is another more recent chapter in the history of the Chateau, which also merits space – that of the Prats family. At the same time we must not allow the history to over–ride the fundamental reason for this profile – the vineyards and the wine.

Louis (as we say in English) had eyes far bigger than his stomach. He was a man consumed by passion – the same passion all his life – the vine and Cos. This passion consumed him, devoured him, and finally destroyed him completely. He knew no bounds, no limits, no reason. When he died, at the great old age of 91, the butcher and the ditch–digger, who signed the death certificate, gave him 93.

They also called him “proprietor”, although the only possession that he officially owned was the bed that he slept on, but he had achieved his lifetime goal – he had created the Grand Vin of Cos d’Estournel.

Before Louis there seems to have been very little up around the hill of Caux or Cos. A few Hectares of vines of no particular merit. He really did create Cos d’Estournel, almost from scratch. He was the son of Guy d’Estournel de Lacoste de Maniban, a member of what we must assume was a fine and noble family from Quercy, since they owned the Chateau d’Estournel, today a ruin, in Montcuq.

It was a marriage between a female member of the De Maniban family and a male d’Estournel, back around 1650, that brought the family to Saint-Estephe.

It also brought them the noble House of Pommies. This was the family residence at the time of Louis and his father. Louis must have been extremely clever, or intelligent, or both, because in spite of all the properties that he owned at the time of the revolution, just after his father’s death, he managed to become a member of the “Conseil du Directoire de Saint Estephe – the Revolutionary Council.

Thus he came out of “La Terreur” with his possessions as well as his life, and still with the noble houses of Caux(now Cos) and Pommies (now Pomys). Pommies was a vast and imposing mansion of some 60 rooms, the ancient Domaine of the de Maniban family as we have seen.

Louis was born on Monday 3rd January 1762. He seemed so frail that his parents feared for his life and had him rapidly baptised. He was given the names Louis, Joseph and Gaspard. Appearances must have been deceptive because, as we shall see, he lived an overfull life to the ripe old age of 91.
His father died when he was 29, therefore in 1791. Louis found that amongst his inheritances were those few hectares of vines at Cos. He also found that the Revolutionary Council was selling off cheap the Abbaye de l’Isle, at Ordonnac, just to the north of Saint-Estephe, and he threw himself upon it like a starved wolf!

From this moment onwards he hardly ever left the region, except for his exotic travels, and he never lived in Bordeaux as did most of his contemporary Médoc proprietors. He would seize, by hook or by crook, every row and parcel of vines that became available. He would buy, exchange, bargain, exhort and bully.

It was passion – not cupidity. He did not count the cost or, regretfully, stop to see if he had the funds available. At that time, wine making was not a particularly paying proposition and quite a few people were prepared to do deals.

His moment of revelation, his wild idea, his dream, came to him in the summer of 1811. It seems that he was living at Pommies at the time. He was looking at his patch of vineyard at Cos, from a high vantage point, when to put it vulgarly – Bingo!

He would turn Cos into a Grand Cru. That would be his lifetime objective.It had the soil and the most magnificent exposition. It was capable of everything that Lafite was capable of. Cos was then just some 12 Hectares of unexceptional vineyard.

Just as he set about this, his creditors set about him. He had been spending without counting the cost, he was deep in debt. He was forced to sell everything to a Jean–Louis Lapeyriere, Tax Collector General for the Seine, all for the miserable sum of 250,000 Francs. Somehow, amazingly, he managed to have a clause included in the bill of sale by which he could buy back the estate within 5 years.

Inevitably he could not and so Lapeyriere became the undisputed owner. He had generously been allowed to stay on his erstwhile land for those 5 years, but now he had to leave. He did not leave, he stayed, and what is more Lapeyriere, strangely, never said a word. We shall never know why, although we can think of all sorts of intriguing reasons!

Five years later, in 1821, Louis astonished everybody, including himself. He bought back everything, and for exactly the 250,000 Francs he had sold it for 10 years earlier. The five creditors, who had provided him with the money to do this, must have known that they would only get it back on his deathbed – if at all!
Louis was now 60 and a highly emotional man. He ate, slept and drank his vines 24 hours per day. He controlled every tiny detail, gave endless streams of instructions, was everywhere at once and delegated nothing to anybody, even to Bonifait, his manager. He agonised over the weather, the state of the vines, the harvest, the fermentation.

 He was a bachelor and his vines were the love of his life and his full time occupation. He made experiments, searched far and wide for better plant material, even experimented with Syrah!

He drove everybody mad, but – he made great wine.He travelled to the East. We know that some of the first fine wines of Cos d’Estournel were sold in India and to Maharajas and Nabobs.

He built a fantastical, bight yellow pagoda, in 1830, at the top of the hill of Cos, and brought back a massive, sculpted door in precious wood, decorated with skilfully wrought copper elephants, from the palace of a Sultan of Zanzibar, to place at its entrance. All this was not for a Chateau; it was only his “Chai”. There was no house at Cos. He became known as the “Nabob” and the “Maharaja of Saint Estephe”. Stendhal, in 1838, described his creation as “not Greek, not Gothic, perhapsChinese”.

Times were hard; Négociants did not want to take his wine. What matter! Louis decided to be his own Négociant, and to bottle his own wine and sell it. The Bordeaux shippers were aghast, nobody would think of Chateau bottling for another 100 years.
He sold to the far ends of the earth, and on one occasion, bringing some cases of Cos back with him on the ship, he found that it tasted delicious, and to his palate, infinitely superior to when he had set out. He started sending his wine on return trips.

He marked the bottles with an “R” and sold them at a higher price. It is Louis, therefore, who is credited with being the founder of the famous “Retour des Indes” or “to India and back”, later used for many other wines, such as Madeira, and not only for Bordeaux.
Between 1821 and 1847, Louis bought over 80 parcels of vines, big and small, most of them for Cos. In 1847 he went overboard. He bought his next door neighbour, Cos Labory for 200,000 Francs, which, of course, he did not have.

Now his creditors went mad! A certain Monsieur Calvé (Calvet), who had been infuriated by Louis’ successful efforts at being his own négociant, led the attack. They forced him to sell. First his precious stock of “Retour des Indes” bottles lying in the Pagoda.

Then his estates. He was utterly ruined, and Calvé saw himself as about to be the owner of Cos d’Estournel. But no! Louis had not yet shot his last bolt! He managed to delay the final signature from June to July and somehow, by the greatest good fortune imaginable, found a wealthy buyer for everything.

This was Charles Cecil Martyn (see COS LABORY), a wealthy London banker. He accepted to buy the entire bankrupted empire for the colossal sum of 1,150,000 Gold Francs (almost the same sum as Rothschild would pay for Mouton the following year). Louis was dying, but he was happy.

What matter if his creditors divided the loot His efforts had been rewarded, his wine had been recognised as a fine wine, he had made COS d’ESTOURNEL into a GRAND CRU –his lifetime objective.

His cup would have overflowed had he known that the greatest of all accolades was at hand – two years later Cos d’Estournel would be give Second Classed Growth status in Napoleon’s famous 1855 Classification of the wines of the Médoc. In addition Martyn allowed him to remain at Cos until he died, which he did, owning nothing at all but the bed upon which he passed away, on 25th January 1853.

Perhaps he never knew, but Queen Victoria, the Tsar of all the Russias and Napoleon 3rd, all drank his Cos d’Estournel!Martyn gave the management of the property to Jerome Ciapella, at that time owner of la Mission Haut Brion. He did not keep the property very long however. He was a banker and an entrepreneur.

He sold it, in 1869, to the elegant and aristocratic Basque family, DE ERRAZU.The Errazu family, not having done very much with it, then sold it in turn to the HOSTEIN brothers, in 1889. The HOSTEIN family is very deeply involved in the history and the wine of Saint Estephe.

Much more can be read about them, in this issue, under Chateau Montrose, as a Hostein married a Charmolüe, present owners of the Chateau. Hostein was good for Cos D’Estournel. He was an extremely wealthy man and cared for his wines and for his vineyards.

When the Hosteins sold, it was to Fernand Ginestet, in 1917, a time of great hardship during the First World War. Fernand also founded the Négociant company of Ginestet, which subsequently became one of the leading Bordeaux Wine Shippers. Fernand had two children a son, Pierre, and a daughter Arlette.
Pierre caused the Négociant business of Ginestet to flourish and expand. Eventually it would be his son, Bernard, who would run it down again into the ground and be forced to sell it. Fernand also acquired Chateau Margaux, together with a number of other fine estates. Arlette married Jean Prats, in 1933.

The Prats family were a well known family in Sète (sétois) and deeply into Vermouth. Theirs was the famous company of Saint Raphael. They also had the “Vermoutherie Cazalis et Prats” and were connected with the French Vermouth “Noilly Prat”, for which my father was the importer and distributor into the United Kingdom.
Jean Prats died, in 1944, having fathered three sons with Arlette, who inherited from him jointly. The first was Yves, who became a Professor of law in Aix and also Rector of Paris University.

He was famous and a great specialist on African countries. The second was Jean–Marie. He remained in Sète and ran the Vermouth enterprises. He also worked with the third son, Bruno, on the architectural and cultural side of Chateau Cos d’Estournel, from 1990–1999, as well as looking after Communications for it.
The third son, Bruno, born in 1944, qualified as an agronomic engineer and an oenologist.In 1985, Pierre Ginestet died (Arlette Prats’ sister).This was more or less just when Bruno was finishing his studies, getting his qualifications and starting his working career. He, together with his brothers, insisted that the inheritance be divided up.

This was duly done, Bruno took over the running of Cos d’Estournel and made his first vintage in 1970. The division was actually signed, in 1971. It simply reflected the two very different philosophies and strategies of both Bernard and the Prats brothers. These latter made a very major sacrifice in this division.
They agreed to Bernard(Pierre’s son), getting their 50% share of Chateau Margaux and of the Négociant Ginestet, in return for receiving Bernard’s 50% of the other estates. These were Château Cos d’Estournel, Château Marbuzet, Château Petit Villages, Château La Fleur Pourret and Château Petit Figeac, as well as a small property in the Ste Croix du Mont, Château de Tastes.

This last was sold off quickly; La Fleur Pourret, Petit Villages and Petit Figeac were sold to Axa Millésimes in 1989. Eventually Axa kept Petit Villages but sold the other two to De Monancourt of Chateau Figeac. The Prats brothers kept Chateau Marbuzet, a fine Cru Bourgeois next door to Cos, as their family home.

As we have seen Louis never built a Chateau and all the grandeur was for the cellars. Bruno, and his family, needed a place to live. In fact Arlette, now aged 98, is still alive today and inhabits Marbuzet.

Bruno had married France Combier and had two children – Jean–Guillaume in 1969, and Florent, who became a senior banker. He ran Cos d’Estournel with passion and love. He renovated it in 1990–1991, with architectural help and advice from Jean Marie. He was a tremendous ambassador not only for Cos d’Estournel,but for the wines of Saint-Estephe and of Bordeaux. He travelled widely, was much respected and became very much an international figure. He brought Cos to the very height of its fame and fortune. For personal family reasons, the Prats brothers finally decided to sell.

They had been friends, in Sète, and for a long time, with Jacques Merlaut. A sale was arranged and Jacques Merlaut bought the property, 50%/50%, together with Senor Moyano, a gentleman from Argentina. In November 2000, they sold, again jointly, to Michel Reybier, the present owner, in the name of his company, “Société des Domaines Reybier”.

 

ON THE TITANIC
We dined on oysters and chicken sauté a la Lyonnaise, with Cos d’Estournel 1887

 

HISTORY OF OWNER
This is short, dating as it does from the year 2000. Michel Reybier stems from Lyon and was a veritable giant in the agribusiness world since the early 1970s.
He was one of the prime developers of industrial of “Charcuterie”(delicatessen meats, principally pork), and created some of France’s biggest brands: Cochonou, Justin Bridou and Jambon d’Aoste. In 1996 he changed course completely.

He divested himself of the “charcuterie” companies and diverted into many other fields, amongst which hotels and Grand Vin. All his wine interests come under his company of “Société des Domaines Reybier”. These include the vineyards and wine of Chateau Marbuzet, which he bought together with Cos d’Estournel, (the house of Marbuzet remains the property and the family home of the Prats) and Goulée, a new 30 Hectares venture further north in the Médoc. Goulée used to be an island in the Gironde estuary until the sands shifted some years ago. It made its first vintage in 2003.

His hotels are La Reserve at Ramatuelle and another La Reserve in Geneva. In addition to these, he has a chain of home decoration shops, which go by the name of “Coté Maison. He lives in Geneva.He has many other interests, which we do not have time to go into here, but to Jean-Guillaume, it is his pragmatism that makes him such a brilliant businessman. He leaves the running of the estate to his manager, and he visits when he feels so inclined or has a reason to do so. Above all he understands deeply both the product and the consumer and their wants and needs. The perfect attributes of a successful entrepreneur!

 

FRIEDRICH ENGELS TO KARL MARX, 30th July 1937.
I have had a case of mixed wines sent to you in Manchester. They will do your wife good. The Bordeaux Wine bears the label Cos d’Estournel.

 

OWNER. WHO’S WHO
As above, Société des Domaines Reybier is 100% owner of Cos d’Estournel.Jean–Guillaume Prats is Director of the property and in full charge. Here we must pause a moment to make a link. As we saw under “HISTORY OF CHATEAU”, Jean–Guillaume is the son of Bruno and France Prats, the gentleman who ran Cos until its sale, and one of the three brothers who owned it. When it was sold, the new owners asked Bruno’s son to run and manage the property.
Jean–Guillaume was born, in 1969, and graduated at the European Business School as Master of Finance. He never qualified as an oenologist, but took evening classes at Bordeaux University. He is the living proof, like Pierre Lurton, of the efficacy of hands–on learning. He married Stephanie, and today they have four young children: Jean–Quentin, Battiste, Marine and Margot – all aged between 3–8 years.

Jean Guillaume says that he has less “management staff” here than has any other Grand Cru. He himself, as well as managing, looks after finance, sales, communications and promotions – everything! He recruited a technical director, a Basque by the name of Dominique Arangoïts, to complement his own skills.Dominique started here in 2000, having previously worked for Axa in Hungary. The cellar master is Dominique Castaing. They are known as “Les Dominiques”.VINES Together with Chateau Marbuzet (the vines were purchased by Michel Reybier, along with Cos.

Chateau Marbuzet was originally also bought by Fernand Ginestet, in 1918, one year after he bought Cos d’Estournel, to provide himself with a place to live nearby. It performs the same function today), there are 75 Hectares of vines.

70% is planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% with Merlot and 5% with Cabernet Franc. There is no Petit Verdot, or rather as Jean Guillaume describes it “a symbolic few rows”. Density of plantation is very high, varying from 8000 – 10,000 vines per Hectare. The average age of the vines is 35 years and they are all pruned on the classical Double Guyot system. Replanting is steady, slow, and done when needed to replace worn out vines, or ones that are not doing what is expected of them.

Last year, for example, 2 ½ Hectares of Merlot were uprooted.Jean–Guillaume does not pretend to be Bio, but very much “lutte raisonnée” or “minimum intervention”. He preaches intense respect of the “terroir” and the environment.

Some grassing between rows is done, in parcels where the clay comes close to the surface, and also where the vigour of the vine is found to be excessive. This is more often than not among the Merlot vines.
When questioned about the merits or demerits of biological farming, quite apart from agreeing that the word is badly chosen as all grape growing must of necessity be biological, he says quite simply, “ At our latitude here, 45°, it is totally impossible to be ‘bio’ without undue risk. With our humidity it is either impossible or madness not to use “produits phytosanitaires” – herbicides.

The vineyards would suffer devastation”. Throughout our conversations, Jean–Guillaume's wry, dry sense of humour steadily increased. He could clearly sense that we appreciated his little asides. He believes himself to be profoundly pragmatic and attributes this to “being educated by the Jesuits”.

The stakes have been raised in the vineyards to increase the canopy and foliage somewhat. Sexual confusion is practiced and all the usual modern operations are meticulously carried out – deleafing, green pruning etc. He says, “Overall it is just a question of being a good gardener – that is all but that is everything”.

No grapes go into the wine of Cos until the vines are 20 years old.Each worker is responsible for some 45,000 vines and looks after them from first to last. They are his total responsibility and he cares for them as for his sons. If he does not, they will soon let him know about it! Since Jean–Guillaume arrived here, everybody on the property has been changed EXCEPT the vineyard workers.
All workers are trained to do all jobs – in the cellars as well as the vineyards. They are paid the same wage. Jean–Guillaume thinks that it is important to develop a good relationship between those in the vineyards and those in the cellar. Until recently these were almost two separate worlds.

 

SOIL
Cos d’Estournel lies on the northern side of the Du Breuil stream, on the hill of Cos, dominating the Gironde by a full 20 metres. As we have seen, the old Gascon nord “caux”“cos” means “hill of pebbles”. The vineyards lie, principally, upon an impressive accumulation of quaternary, gravel, wrested from the distant mountains of the Massif Central and the Pyrenees, and deposited upon Saint–Estephe’s limestone bed when the primeval river receded.

 

Shaped into well drained slopes by erosion brought about by the winds of the Mindel period, these exceptionally deep layers of gravel are a true geological curiosity and make up one of the world’s most precious and rare wine growing areas. This soil forces the old vines, planted on its heights, to thrust their roots down very deeply into the arid soil until they reach meagre, but always present, water reserves in the aquifer at anything up to 19 metres.

It is these extended roots, which slow down the flow of sap, thus concentrating it and giving such fine and individual flavours to the wine. This is the great soil of the Cabernet on the heights and the south slopes. The Merlot is planted on the east slopes and on the sides where there are outcrops of Saint Estephe limestone. Although the separations are clearly defined, there are some in between stages which allow room for manoeuvre.

All these soils have splendid drainage.A profound geological survey has been done here. They now know the soil composition and its changes almost row by row. The result of this study helps to decide the way the vine will be pruned, what weight of grapes it will be allowed to carry and above all the date of maturity and harvesting of the grapes. Every vine is an individual and must be handled accordingly.

The French varietals, as well as the American rootstock, will be chosen in function of the composition of the soil, among other factors. Over the last 5 years, Jean–Guillaume has seen the beneficial results of this study and the decisions that have been taken based upon it. Jean–Guillaume finishes by saying “In the final analysis we do make “garage” wine, because each and every parcel of our vineyard is given its own special, cosseted care and attention”.

 

WINE MAKING
Here at Cos d’Estournel this is really state–of–the art.A magnificent “cuvier” is under construction, which will be ready for the 2005 vintage. Bruno Prats abandoned cement vats in 1998, but his son came back to them in 2000. However, the new Cuvier will have 57 vats, from 25–65 Hectolitres capacity, all in thermo–regulated, truncated, stainless–steel. These are very special.

The degree of truncation is 18°, now considered to be the absolute optimum. The stainless steel is “recuit” or “double–cooked” and laser soldered. The new vats will have the most amazing thermal inertia. They are made by “Serap”, who are the great specialists in Dairy Milk equipment.

Picking is naturally done by hand into “cagettes”. The grapes then go to the cellars and the sorting tables. A vibrating table before the destalker and another one after it. Cold soaking is done, principally for the Merlot, at 6–8°C, using dry–ice to reduce the temperature of the freshly sorted grapes. All operations, pumpovers, rack and returns, even temperature control, depend entirely upon the vintage and the conditions at the time.
There are no hard and fast rules.

The extraction of the polyphenols is taken very seriously indeed. They must be just exactly the correct amount for perfect elegance and balance. Depending upon the extractability, which in turn depends upon many other factors, temperature may be allowed to rise to between 28°C and 31°C. Post fermentation maceration is also decided by conditions. Very short in 2003, much longer in 2004.

The blending here is done at the same time as the running–off of the new wine. Jean–Guillaume has found that he, personally, tastes better when there is more malic acid in the wine. The run–off wine is put into other vats and is 75% blended during this operation. The malo–lactic fermentation then takes place, in the vats, and as soon as it is completed the wine goes into barrel, still warm at about 21°C.
Cos d’Estournel is using rather less new oak than previously – about 60–80%. The number of cooperages has also been reduced to 4, although a few barrels are taken from others to test and to keep up the competition between them. The toasting is long, slow and medium. He orders 27mm thickness transport barrels. For the second wine, Les Pagodes de Cos, some 50% new oak is used.

Racking is done, following the requirement of the wine, and can range from 3–5 rackings during its time in barrel. Fining is done with fresh whites of egg, barrel by barrel, just two months before bottling. Jean–Guillaume does not filter.All the wine goes into a huge vat for perfect homogenisation before bottling, which is done by Cos d’Estournel’s own staff, on their own bottling line.

 

PRODUCTION
There are various wines and various labels.Cos d’Estournel. In 2004 there were 21,000 cases. In 2003 there were 15,000 cases. These are the extremes.Les Pagodes de Cos 5–10,000 cases, depending upon the production of the First Wine. Château Marbuzet, Cru Bourgeois, Saint Estephe. Part of the Domaines Reybier portfolio, this is no longer the Second Wine of Cos, but a completely separate wine, made on its own 11 Hectares. Production is some 4,500 cases.Goulée. Appellation Saint Estephe contrôlée. Around 10,000 cases.

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