The Rule of Gravity

A sanctuary devoted to wine, Cos d’Estournel’s emblematic pagodas house the estate’s vat room and winemaking facilities. Remarkably modern and understated, these spaces were designed to offer optimal conditions for winemaking and cellaring. Here nothing is futile or superfluous: all is centered around wine, even the site’s magnificent architecture, which serves first and foremost as a vessel for winemaking pursuits.

A number of investments has been made since 2000 to equip the site with the most adapted facilities and techniques. In 2003, our vat room was fitted with advanced isothermal vats in the shape of truncated cones, and the subsequent construction of Bordeaux’s first vat room and cellars to be entirely based on the laws of gravity cemented Cos’s role at the forefront of innovation among the world’s finest estates.

The winemaking process at Cos d’Estournel was entirely revisited to respect the estate’s grapes and its wines throughout. Not a single pump is used from the instant the harvest enters the cellars to the moment when the wines are bottled, so as to manipulate the grapes and their juices as gently as possible. This gravity-based system harnesses natural forces to preserve the innate qualities of each grape and extract their precious compounds with great precision and without excess.

Upon being cut from the vine, the grapes are brought above the vats by a system of conveyor belts and small transportable vats. The gravity-flow system maintains the grapes intact, and their seeds are protected by their skins, which allows for better control in extracting the tannins, color and aromas naturally present in skin and seed. The grapes at Cos d’Estournel are treated so gently that when the time comes to press the marc to obtain the press wine, they can still be counted berry by berry.
After the grapes enter the vats, gravity continues to play a central role in fermentation, barreling and racking, a technique that separates lees and wine during aging.
Finally, once barrel aging comes to an end, gravitational forces are also key to the bottling process. The wines at this stage are quite fragile, and Cos’s gravity-flow system allows our teams to manipulate them gently. Thus their complexity is preserved from beginning to end, resulting in wonderfully subtle nectars with elegant tannins that are pure, dazzling expressions of our terroir.