Château Cos d’Estournel: The Modern Era
Charles Cecil Martyn permitted Louis Gaspard d’Estournel to continue living at Pommies because it would seem he had no intention of using any of these acquisitions as a residential property. An absentee landlord, he remained distant from the affairs of the estate, appointing none other than Jérôme Chiapella, proprietor of Château La Mission Haut-Brion, to look after the vineyards and wine. Perhaps Martyn was too busy defending his reputation – his election to the British Houses of Parliament in 1841 had been declared void after bribery by his agents had been revealed – to bother himself with the day-to-day running of the estate.
Martyn and Chiapella were surely popular employers, their success was measured not only in how they raised the quality of the wine, but also in their forward-thinking approach to their workers who received free healthcare, and retired employees were housed rent-free on the estate. And of course, as already noted, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel continued to live rent free at Pommies.
In 1860 Martyn sold neighbouring Cos Labory, a possession of Louis Gaspard d’Estournel which he had acquired alongside Cos d’Estournel, and in 1869 he also sold the latter. The new owners were an aristocratic family from the Basque region named Errazu who seem to have had more interest in socialising than viticulture, gaining a reputation for hosting numerous high-society soirées at the estate. This state of affairs lasted but two decades though, as in 1889 the property came into the hands of the Hostein brothers, who also owned nearby Château Montrose, resulting in a brief five-year period when these two second growth properties were in the same ownership. In 1894 they passed Montrose on to Louis Victor Charmolüe, who had married into the Hostein family. Cos d’Estournel, meanwhile, they held on to a little longer.
The modern era for Cos d’Estournel really began in 1917, when the estate was acquired by Fernand Ginestet. From Ginestet it passed through the hands of his daughter, Arlette, who married into the Prats family, to her three children, Jean-Marie, Yves and Bruno Prats. Until very recently the Prats family in particular Bruno Prats and then his son Jean-Guillaume Prats were in charge at Cos, although there were some subtle and often unappreciated changes in ownership.
