We can go back some 250 years with the history of Chateau Cos–Labory. The first we hear of the property is as a Domaine, by the name of Cos–Gaston, lying in the hamlet of Cos. It had taken the first part of its name from the hill on which it lay, and belonged to a family by the name of Gaston.

We know that it had vines and was producing wine. Pierre Gaston died, on 11th August 1777, and his three children drew lots for the estate. It went to his son, Hyacinthe.
Hyacinthe married Anne Pauty and they had an only–child, Marie–Sany. Marie–Sany later married Francois–Armand Labory and the estate was renamed Cos Gaston Labory.By this time it was a large property, producing 70 –90 Tonneaux (280–360 barrels of 225 litres each. One Tonneau = 900 litres) of wine, which meant that it must have had some 40 Hectares under vine. It was in fact actually larger than its neighbour, Cos d’Estournel. It enjoyed a fine reputation.

Francois–Armand had no less than 8 children, but he and they did not see eye to eye. Relationships were strained. When their mother died, court cases over the inheritance followed. On 3rd June 1845, four of the 8 children became owners for 204,000 Francs. By adjudication, the same year, 2nd July, there was a higher bid and three of the children bought it for 250,700 francs.
They did not fulfil the requirements and stipulations and so yet another adjudication, on 8th December 1847, allowed the eccentric Louis–Gaspard d’Estournel, owner of Cos d’Estournel, but only just the owner by the skin of his teeth, to buy it for 200,000 Francs. Francois–Armand, and the three children who had purchased, never accepted this adjudication but were unable to do anything about it. Louis–Gaspard d’Estournel had become proprietor.

This eccentric gentleman held on to it for just five years before he was forced to sell. When he did, on 24th July 1852, to the English banker, Charles Cecil Martyns, it had lost a lot of its vineyards. It had been radically changed and chopped up. The 40 Hectares had been reduced to just 15. Gaspard d’Estournel had not been good for Cos Labory as he saw the best of its vineyards as manna from heaven for Cos d’Estournel.
However, it has to be said that he made fine wine, which meant that Cos Labory, although diminished, still had its fine reputation, which would enable it to be classified Fifth Growth in the 1855 classification. Martyns had bought Cos d’Estournel, Cos–Labory and Pomys, all for 1,150,000 Francs.Martyns sold to Francois Marie Peychaud, on 16th July 1860, for 108,993 Francs.

On 22nd June 1911, 51 years later, there was a new judgement and Peychaud sold Labory to Monsieur Jean–Alfred Pon, for 46,500 Francs. 10 years later, in 1921, Pon sold to Madame Ernestine Lasseverie. She, by the way, was the grandmother of Philippe Gasqueton, late of Calon Segur, whose widow declined to be interviewed by BORDEAUX – NEW YORK for this series of “FIVE WINES”.

Times were hard, penury was at hand, and Cos–Labory was seized by the Bank, Compagnie Algérienne, (see similar proceedings under FIVE WINES – HAUT BRION). They disposed of it, for 98,000 Francs, to Monsieur Edmond Charriaut,Commercial Attaché at the French Embassy in Belgium. Finally, on 22nd June 1922, M. Charriaut sold Cos–Labory to Ambrosio and Augusto Weber, for 200,000 Francs, forebears of the present owners.

 

HISTORY OF OWNERS
As we have seen, this starts with the purchase of the property by Ambrosio and Augusto Weber, on 22nd June 1922, for 200,000 Francs. They lived in Argentine, where they were highly successful ranchers, but were of American origin.
They sent their cousin, George Weber, still an American citizen, to run Cos–Labory and to live there. It is thought, but this is unconfirmed, that they might originally have bought the property on behalf of a cousin of theirs who was related to the Peychaud family, and who died shortly after arriving in Saint Estèphe, leaving behind him a totally disinterested widow!

George married a lady from Brittany, Marie–Alberte Loysel, in 1926, and they had one daughter, Cecile, who was born and brought up at Labory. Later, in 1959, considering it very much her home, she purchased it from her cousins in Argentina.
Cecile was, and is, Bernard’s mother. Later, since Weber was still an American citizen, he had to get out of France during the Second World War, and he entrusted the management of Cos–Labory to Pierre Ginestet, the proprietor of Cos d’Estournel, next door. Cecile therefore spent much of her teenage years in New York. Weber came back when the war was over.

On the other side of the family, Bernard’s grandfather was a local doctor in Saint Estèphe. He was much respected in the locality. Strangely enough he married a lady who also carried the name Audoy, but who was in no way related.
They had 4 children. One of them followed a military career and this was Bernard’s father, Francois Audoy. Francois married Cecile and they had four children – Bernard, Denis, Stéphane and Martial. He retired from the military and came to help look after the property, together with Cecile, after the death of her mother, in 1959, when her father decided to retire.

Regretfully Francois died young, in 1984, but Cecile, his widow and Bernard’s mother, is still alive and well today and inhabits the Chateau. Thus the property comes from the female side of the family. Bernard was born in 1954, (A poor vintage!) and is therefore 51 this year. After school he studied oenology at Bordeaux University.

He was fortunate enough, just, to manage to study under the great Emile Peynaud, who retired in 1975. After qualifying, with honours, in 1977, Bernard came to work at Cos Labory, in 1978. His father had co–founded a company by the name of “Crus et Chateaux de Bordeaux”, together with a number of partners with well-known names in the trade. Among them was Dominique Lurton, father of Pierre Lurton, who is today manager of both Cheval Blanc and d’Yquem. Times were hard and they needed a vehicle to sell their wines direct.

Bernard’s career has therefore been nothing but wine! Today he is married to Marlene and has two children, both girls, of age 18 and 15 years. He is the “Gérant” of the property. As for his younger brothers, Denis is an accountant with Andre Lurton at Château Bonnet, Stéphane works closely with Bernard on the wine side of Labory and Martial is in charge of Communications and Administration. Bernard and his family live at nearby Château Andron-Blanquet, a Cru Bourgeois Saint Estèphe, which Francois Audoy bought, in 1971, since the previous owner was a friend but wanted to change and invest in Cognac.

 

OWNERS. WHO’S WHO
Quite simply, today Château Cos-Labory belongs to Madame Cécile Audoy and her four sons. Between them they do everything and look after all facets of running the estate.

 

VINEYARDS
Today there are 18 hectares under vine, planted classically with: 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The vines are planted at the high density of 8,700 vines per Hectare (1metre X 1.15metres).
There are fortunately a lot of old vines and the average age of the vines is some 35 years. Bernard is proud of a number of 50–year old parcels. He believes firmly in “complantation” – replacing moribund vines, in older vineyards, with new ones. He did this a great deal at the beginning, as so many old vines needed replacing.

He humorously recalls having "complanted" with some white grape varieties by mistake, as the nurseryman had sent him the wrong plants! He finds this “complantation” invigorates the vineyard.

He practices “lutte raisonnée” or “minimum intervention”,and although he knows and admits that the Médoc has both "Esca" and "Eutypiose", he no longer uses Sodium Arsenate, even though it was a highly efficient killer! He has not yet found an ideal alternative!
He is not Bio, because although he does not treat systematically, he thinks it stupid to take unnecessary risks. However, he uses no insecticide and finds that he now has more and more ladybirds, which eat his red spiders for him.

He does not grass between rows, but does the 4 classical “labours” or “ploughings” on the “plateau”, and weed-kills on his clay soils. He finds the weed-killed vines live longer and are healthier and more resistant than the ploughed ones, because their roots are not regularly disturbed. He also gets more tractor damage in his ploughed vines than where he kills his weeds.

He has raised his canopies as the “rognage” or “trimming” is now done by machine. Naturally Cos–Labory deleafs, but by hand NOT by the burning–machine. He feels that the heat from the machine DOES risk toughening the skins of the grapes. Also the result is very ugly. As little green pruning as possible is done here.

Bernard does not like the system. He admits the need for it and does it principally to get rid of less ripe or retarded bunches. He says, “the more you green prune the more the vine wants to produce. This is exactly the opposite of the long term objective”.

 

SOIL
On the “plateau”, which lies at the top of the hill, or “Cos” from the word “caux”, already explained as meaning a hillock of gravel, Cos–Labory has deep, pure gravel on top of calcareous soil.
Further west there are two parcels of clay on limestone subsoil. This of course is the colder soil, and here he plants his Merlot, whereas the Cabernet Sauvignon goes on the fine, warm gravel. Petit Verdot goes on the borders, between the two, and Cabernet Franc also goes on the gravel.

 

WINE MAKING
Picking is done partly by machine and partly by hand. Already, in 1984, his father had chosen to machine harvest and Bernard finds that it works extremely well. It is relatively rare in Classed Growths and he made some interesting comments. “It works perfectly as long as:

1. You go slowly

2. The grapes are fully ripe, without being overripe

3. The ground and plants and the bunches are dry”.

He finds that the resulting grapes are sometimes cleaner than the grapes from the baskets picked by hand, and he finds that the machine handles Cabernet best because of the small firm berries. He sees no justification in the accusation that it shortens the life of the vine and finds that, “if there is a sick plant, the machine often breaks it off at the base, which is useful”.
As for hand picking, today it brings with it huge social problems and extra costs. You have to book 200 pickers to end up with 100. Also, he adds wryly, “the French pickers prefer Mushrooming and Shooting to Picking. At least the Spaniards really work”.

His careful parcellar selection often requires stopping picking and then restarting. “The machine offers no objections, but if you stop the pickers, they often go off to another Chateau and never come back”! Cos–Labory has its own machine, because if you use one of the “SERVICE” companies, you often do not get the machine just exactly when you need it!
For the hand picked grapes he uses some 15 of the local talent. The hand picked grapes are sorted on sorting tables at the end of the rows and then brought in to the cellars on the trailer. There they are destalked, lightly crushed and sent to the fermentation vats. For the machine picked grapes, the whole process is the same, but in the cellar.

 

Fermentation is in stainless steel vats of two types:
1. 150 Hectolitres vats, wider than they are high

2. Divided vats, with 85 Hectolitres capacity at the top and 60 Hectolitres at the bottom. All are thermo–regulated and were installed in 1999.The grapes are cold–soaked at 10°C for a short period, but this has only been done since 3 years ago. Two pumpovers per day and two “rack and returns” during the fermentation. He used to allow the temperature to rise to 30°C–32°C, but now he tries to keep it from passing 28°C. Post fermentation maceration is done at around 25°C to avoid any thermal shock to the new wine. Vat–time is overall some 3–4 weeks.

Laboratory yeasts are used, not only to eliminate risk, but also because Bernard has found a better extraction of the sugar with them. No enzymes!The wine is then run–off into other vats, and the post fermentation temperature more or less maintained so that the malo–lactic fermentation can start and develop at around 20°C–21°C.

He has found malo–lactic fermentation in barrel to be long, complicated, excessively hard work and labour costly. Also he says, “the cosmetic flattery does not last”. For him the malo–lactic fermentation in the Merlot is the most difficult.

This is due principally to its higher alcoholic strength rather than to the vat temperature. After the malo-lactic fermentation, some 40% of the new wine is put into barrel. Half of this will be Cabernet Sauvignon and half Merlot. He uses 6 different cooperages who medium toast his wine. He knows, from experience, which parcels, and therefore which vats, usually produce his best wine.
He takes some American Oak barrels from Seguin Moreau and puts his Cabernet Sauvignon predominantly into these. At the blending of his 2000 and 2003 vintages, the wine in the American oak barrels excelled, and he finds barrels from this oak have improved beyond recognition.

This barrelling is done around mid–November and the wine will be racked a month later or in early January. The other 60% of the crop is kept in vat for the winter and is racked monthly for purposes of aeration. In February comes the blending of all the best elements and this is the First Assemblage. In March, everything goes into barrel, whilst the wine from the previous vintage goes back into vat until time for bottling.
The Final and Second “assemblage” is completed in March of the following year. Cos–Labory racks as required, once the wine is in barrel, and fines IF required (not in 2003). He finds that, to his taste, fining DOES somewhat STRIP the wine. Finally just a light, cleaning filtration before bottling, which he has had done by a mobile bottling team since 5 years ago. They come in May–June and do the job, perfectly in his estimation, in just two days.

He finds that he is far too busy in the vineyard at this period of the year and anyway it would take him far longer. They only bottle and cork. After this, depending upon the requirements of the customers, the capsules and labels are put on the bottles by the Cos-Labory staff, and are then packed into wooden boxes.

 

ENLARGEMENTS AND IMPROVEMENTS
The Château was built in the 1860s and was enlarged and redecorated in the 1890s and entirely restored in the 1970s. It is a typical, modest–sized, “Victorian” Médoc Chateau, just a little bit like Chateau Palmer.
The “cuvier" was renovated in 1990, but it had a rather malodorous roof and so, five years ago, Bernard built a splendiferous new Cuvier, with a perfectly neutral roof and ceiling. Just four years ago he also built a magnificent barrel cellar.

Asked about his future projects he says, “I am very happy that all this has been completed, as times are now becoming difficult and budgets must be watched and projects and expenditures limited”.
The vineyards are in perfect condition and for Bernard “quality wine comes from the vine”. He demonstrates perfectly a Gentle and unflamboyant determination to do ever better and better.

 

PRODUCTION
On average, Cos–Labory produces around 10,000 cases of wine (12 bottle cases), of which 66%-75% is the First Wine and the remainder the Second Wine, which goes by the name of “Le Charme Labory”. All the production is sold on the Bordeaux “Place”, except for one exceptional customer in London.
As Cos–Labory is, quite deliberately, not a mediatic or high–profile property, the wine sells slowly “En Primeur”. 2003 was a notable exception.


2003 COS LABORY
Colour: Deep, fine, vivid purple
Nose: A primary and vigorous nose. Sample drawn from the vat. Fine, generous, farm nose with freshness and power
Palate: Rich and ripe black fruits in the mouth. Small crop, but vines were unstressed by the intense heat. Deep fruit but with freshness and crispness and excellent balancing and invigorating acidity. This is natural – they did not acidify. Firm tannins, strong at the end but well blended and in no way aggressive. A sound, powerful – 13.8°, well–built Saint-Estèphe with a long life ahead of it.

2001 COS LABORY
Colour: Attractive, almost purple rim on a full intense colour
Nose: Fresh, clean, well fruited with long and harmonious notes. Attractive spice and lots of energy
Palate: Very deep fruit and elegant fresh balance. Although plenty of power the wine is delicately tuned with fine balance. Long wine. The firm tannins emerge late and there is a vigorous attack in the final mouth and on the finish. In spite of all this it is a touch restrained today and I would like to see it again in 6 months time.

2000 COS LABORY
Colour: Deep, intense and brilliant, with a fine ruby edge.
Nose: Big nose. Some oak is apparent here in a delicate way. It is being absorbed and is in no way intruding or excessive. It is doing its job and will soon be totally integrated.
Palate: Dense, concentrated, spicy and deep fruited. Both red and black fruits, showing juicy and ripe. Very long in the mouth. A strong, immovable structure. Tight knit. This is a fine Cos Labory, complete and with balance and breed. Will last a long time and needs that time to soften and develop.

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