A Plot, A Souvenir

At Cos d’Estournel, many of the vineyard’s plots bear names that resemble the work of a naturalist writer when they are in reality relics of the history of each piece of land, each with a very specific profile of vine thriving upon it. Some of the names are explicit while others conjure legends or images from the past . . .

Among the more accessible names, “Le Chêne,” from the French for “oak tree,” is a plot once bordered by a majestic century-old oak tree from which one could admire the Hill of Cos and the château. As for “Le Lac,” or “The Lake,” the plot was named after a nearby body of water, and “Le Maïs,” from the French for “corn,” for a nearby field that once provided sustenance for the estate’s laborers. “Les Sapinettes” was named using a familiar word for “spruce,” an allusion to the lovely evergreen trees planted at one end.

A bit further along lies “La Fontine,” which was fondly named after a nearby fountain where vinegrowers used to quench their thirst during long days in the vineyard. “Le Manège,” from the French for “arena,” recalls the mule that used to be driven around the estate’s well to pump water into a system that supplied it to the château. “L’Horloge,” or “The Clock,” speaks to the timepiece that used to hang on the château’s central pagoda that the vinegrowers working on the plot used to keep time. Finally, it was on “Les 6 Sadons de la Mule” plot that the mule in question—whose “6 sadons” is still in use today as a unit of measurement for calculating the surface area of vineyards—would rest when it was not at work in the vines.

Other plots were named for significant moments that were decisive in the lives of the estate’s men and women. This is the case for “La Parcelle des Femmes,” or “Ladies’ Plot,” which was planted in 1915 by the women of Cos d’Estournel during World War I as their male counterparts battled at the front.

The name of each plot may tell a particular story but how the plots are situated and the selection of grape varieties that are planted in the different parts of the vineyard are the result of meticulous consideration. Located in the middle of a valley in the northern Médoc between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gironde Estuary, Cos d’Estournel is situated on the “Hill of Pebbles,” the Gascon word for which, “Cos,” inspired the name of the estate.