Terroir above All

Upon his arrival at Cos d’Estournel in 2000, Michel Reybier named Dominique Arangoïts technical director of the estate, and the latter has been bringing his unique expertise to the vineyard ever since.
For Dominique Arangoïts, the relationship between the men and women of Cos, the estate’s most singular terroir, and the wine it produces is about embracing an unrelenting quest of excellence and opening oneself up to puissant emotions.

Cos d’Estournel is a legendary place; it has the power to move you. An estate like this requires to face many challenges, but it gives back and enriches one’s life. When you devote yourself to Cos, you feel an incredible symbiosis with the vineyard and its wine.

Crafting a wine that the team forever seeks to make exceptional requires them to be attentive every step of the way. They must remain vigilant in the vineyard and the cellars and meticulously address myriad details throughout the year.

With Michel Reybier, they make decisions and take risks, sometimes trusting their instincts, until that moment when time suddenly stands still, when the wine comes to life. There is something so enchanting about it. Harvest and winemaking are the sources of so many emotions.

Michel Reybier’s vision echoes that of the estate’s founder, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel. Cos d’Estournel is a place where wine comes first and foremost, and its men and women dedicate themselves to bringing one of the world’s finest wines to life from an extraordinary terroir.
Deeply convinced by the quality of his terroir, Louis Gaspard d’Estournel consecrated his life and his fortune to his estate and his wine. Never were they denied a minute of his time or an iota of his energy, and the quality and exceptional potential of the vineyard he created on this most particular site remained forever evident to him.

His legacy lives on today. Upon acquiring Cos d’Estournel two decades ago, Michel Reybier was driven by the same audacious spirit when he trusted his intuitions and made the terroir his ultimate priority. He entrusted Dominique Arangoïts with the mission of bringing this founding vision to life.
The latter explains: “at Cos d’Estournel, it is the land that makes the wine, more so than the hand of man. This soil has been nurtured by Mother Earth, and we must tend to it with great care to preserve it for future generations. This is primordial if we want to produce wines of this caliber.

For twenty years, Michel Reybier has sought to better comprehend the soils and subsoils. This approach, rare in the region at the time, is part of Louis Gaspard d’Estournel’s legacy, as perpetuated and further developed by Michel Reybier.

Cos d’Estournel is a most singular estate, and its terroir is unique. It is situated on a hill of pebbles surrounded by marshland, with a range of altitudes that is significant for the region. The combination of these factors has resulted in a rich diversity of soils. To better grasp these environmental factors, it was needed to analyze the soils and subsoils.

Michel Reybier initiated the process in 2000, and the soils of the estate were studied over a period of several years, until a comprehensive mapping of the whole of the terroir was established. Nineteen different types of soil were identified, and for Dominique Arangoïts, “this in-depth knowledge allows us to seek out the best of what each plot has to offer, sometimes selecting grapes by subplot, to craft the wines of the estate. We feel it is essential for our wine to have “the taste of the place” and express its particularities to the fullest.”

Understanding that the soil was the first element to be considered in order to better adapt to it, rebuilding the estate’s winemaking facilities, and pushing the limits of the possibilities of gravity-flow equipment to bring our terroir to its purest form of expression were among the choices that have contributed to the longevity of the estate’s vision and its legacy of crafting exceptional wines.

Thanks to Michel Reybier’s vision and his confidence in his team, the experience they have acquired, and their ability to trust certain intuitions, they have helped make Cos d’Estournel what it is today.
Two hundred years later, Michel Reybier continues to follow in the footsteps of Louis Gaspard d’Estournel, and the future of the estate is taken into account at every instant. They know they need to respect the land, the environment, and all that surrounds them.

Safeguarding the estate’s growth and longevity is an important part of this commitment.