Chateau Cos Labory

This estate first enters the historical record as Cos-Gaston, named after the Gaston family. The head of the family, Pierre Gaston, ran a smooth operation—of which commercial production of wine was no small part. His death in August 1777 meant the property passed onto his son Hyacinthe, who then went onto marry a certain Anne Pauty. Together they lived at the estate before bequeathing it to their only child, Marie-Sany. Marie-Sany subsequently married Francois-Armand Labory, and so the estate fell into the hands of the Labory family. This was an estate of note, producing very large quantities of wine that matched many of the larger Medoc estates of the era.

The lone child Marie-Sany went on to have eight children of her own. Sadly, this display of fecundity did not do the estate any favours: The disputes surrounding issues of inheritance tore the family apart. The estate found itself with four owners by 1845, but in the space of a month it fell into the hands of three other children following a court hearing and – notably – the offer of a much higher bid. The desperate bid unsurprisingly fell through and it was left to Lousi Gaspard to step in to the tune of 200,000 Francs. Under his aegis the d’Estournel and Cos Labory estates were under shared ownership, though it was not to last long: In 1852, the indebted and sickly Louis was forced to sell both of his estates; he passed away a mere year later. Some solace can be found in the fact that the new owner, a London financier named Charles Cecil Martyn, allowed d’Estournel to stay on in his house at Pommies until his pending demise.

Martyn found himself in control of a slightly diminished estate, thanks in part to the transfer of its best vines to Cos d’Estournel: There were a mere 15 hectares of vines. Still, the quality was noteworthy as it was classified as a fifth growth under the 1855 Classification. After eight years under his stewardship the estate was sold in 1860 and fell into the hands of various successive owners. Sadly, economic depression, and the pestilences of phylloxera and oidium all took an especially heavy toll on this estate. It was snapped up by the bank Compagnie Algerienne, who then sold it onto Edmond Charriat. It then finally fell into the hands of Ambrosio and Augusto Weber and remains with their descendents to this day.

Although they resided in Argentina, the Weber family were American and installed a cousin named George Weber at the estate. Settling in, he soon married Marie-Alberte Loysel, a native of Brittany. Their union produced a daughter, Cecile. She rightly considered Cos Labory to be her home, but sadly – being of part American descent - was forced to leave France during World War 2. She returned to the property and bought it from the Weber cousins in 1959 and married Francois Audoy, the son of a doctor, and together they had four offspring. Of the children, Bernard Audoy is the most interesting, viticulturally speaking. He studied oenology at Bordeaux under Emily Peynaud, graduating in 1977 and taking the helm of Cos Labory in 1978. His three siblings work locally and it is they and Cecile that maintain control of the property, though it is Bernard that is the key player; it is he who oversaw the construction of new ultra-modern fermentation facilities in the 1990s.

Cos Labory remains a small estate, covering only 18 hectares of the St. Estephe appellation. Vines have an average age of 35 years and are planted at 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. A large number of vines exceed 50 years, and the most venerable examples are replaced on a vine-by-vine basis so as to ensure the highest quality – something systematic uprooting and replanting actively undermines. Soils are a mixture of gravel and clay over limestone. Chemical treatments are used when appropriate, though insecticides are not used. The really striking difference, though, is the heavy reliance on machines when it comes to harvesting and tasks such as thinning the canopy during summer. Bernard Audoy is unrepentant and remains a staunch advocate of this process.

Fruit is rigorously sorted on tables prior to being destemmed, crushed and delivered to the new thermo-regulated stainless steel fermentation vats. 40% of the wine goes into barrel, which is a mix of American and French oak. The remaining percentage remains in vat until the following spring, when it then goes into barrel for another year. Wine is sometimes subject to fining and filtration. The grand vin is Chateau Cos Labory (up to 7500 cases per annum) and the second wine (up to 3300 cases per annum) is Le Charme Labory.