Château Cos d’Estournel

It was late on a December afternoon when I first saw Château Cos d’Estournel. It was the week before Christmas, and I was in Bordeaux with a group for a few days of tastings, visiting the likes of Château Brown, Château Sociando-Mallet, Château Margaux and a number of smaller estates. We were on the D2, heading north into Médoc territory, having already left behind the city of Bordeaux and the communes of Margaux, St Julien and Pauillac. Ahead of us our temporary residence for this trip awaited us, prompting thoughts of dinner and an evening of relaxation, all very welcome after a long day of visits and tasting.

Within the car it was warm, but outside was bitterly cold, as it had been since 8am, when our day had begun with a vineyard inspection and quick pruning lesson. And above us, the sky was beginning to darken as night advanced, ousting the dim light of day. And there, situated on a turn on the D2 just ahead of us, catching a few of those final, fading rays, was the golden sandstone of the chai at Cos d’Estournel, its Oriental pagodas sitting proud and yet conspicuously alien, as if the whole building had recently been lifted and transplanted here from some foreign hilltop.

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