The Two “Cos” Estates on Cos Hill Were Once a Single Property. In 2023, Why Did the Hill Return to a Single Hand?

On the hill of Cos in Saint-Estèphe, two “Cos” estates stand side by side. Looking east, there is Château Cos d’Estournel, crowned with its three towers — the Second Growth already introduced in this series. Next to it, on the same hillside slope, lie the vineyards of the Fifth Growth, Cos Labory. Their classifications differ. But few people know that these two vineyards once belonged, for a time, to the same owner as a single estate.

The two vineyards, once a single estate, separated in 1860 — according to several wine trade media, through a resale to Louis Peychaud — and from then on stood side by side while going their separate ways. That gap closed in 2023. The one who newly took hold of Cos Labory was none other than Michel Reybier, the owner of its neighbor, Cos d’Estournel. Why, at this particular moment, did the hill’s memory return into this particular hand?

A Pre-Revolution Marriage Preserved in the Name

The name Cos Labory comes from the hill’s name, “Cos,” joined with the surname of one of its owners: François Labory. He is said to have presided over this land until 1845. But the story behind the name is said to reach back a generation further. Before the Revolution, Marie-Sanie, a descendant of Pierre Gaston, who then held the estate, is said to have married a man named François-Armand Labory — and this, according to tradition, is how the name “Labory” came to be carried into the château’s name, beyond what the hill’s name alone would have given it. A single marriage carried a single family name forward across many generations.

One Hill, a Fork in the Road

According to several wine trade media, the Cos Labory estate separated from the neighboring Cos d’Estournel holdings in 1860, through its resale to Louis Peychaud, and set out on its own independent course.

For the 163 years since, the two “Cos” estates — Cos d’Estournel and Cos Labory — stood side by side on the same hill while accumulating separate owners, separate classifications, and separate histories. Cos Labory was selected as a Fifth Growth in the 1855 Médoc Classification. Though neighbors sharing the same hill, their two stories did not cross for 163 years.

A Family’s Century of Stewardship, and a 2023 Decision

In 1922, the Weber brothers, Ambrogio and Auguste, acquired Cos Labory. From then on, the estate is said to have been kept within a single family for about a century, passed down through the direct Audoy line. An estate held by the same family for a full century is uncommon among the 61 châteaux of the 1855 Classification. The estate’s last proprietor, Bernard Audoy, is a direct descendant of the Weber family. Facing retirement at sixty-nine, he is said to have had no successor among his siblings or the next generation. In 2023, he made the decision to bring down the curtain on a hundred years of family stewardship.

The hand that received the estate belonged to his neighbor, Michel Reybier. Reybier has served as the owner of Cos d’Estournel since 2000. This acquisition does not appear to have come out of nowhere. According to several trade press reports, Reybier began with the 2000 acquisition of Cos d’Estournel, then in 2017 acquired Château Pomys, the residence where the estate’s founder d’Estournel had once lived, reviving it as the hotel La Maison d’Estournel, and then in 2023 acquired Cos Labory — as if, step by step, reassembling piece by piece the world that d’Estournel had once built.

The official site explains this acquisition as a gesture made in respect of the founder, Louis-Gaspard d’Estournel. A family facing retirement with no successor, and a neighbor who had been gathering back the memory of the hill piece by piece — in 2023, these two timelines converged on the same hill. The estate that the Weber family and then the Audoy family had preserved for a century thus passed into the hands of the neighbor reassembling the hill’s memory, and the hill returned, for the first time in 163 years, to a single owner.

Three Facts Worth Knowing

• Cos d’Estournel and Cos Labory were once a single estate. According to several wine trade media, they separated in 1860 and walked separate paths for years, but in 2023, neighbor Michel Reybier acquired Cos Labory and the hill returned to a single owner.
• The name “Labory” is said to trace back to a marriage. Marie-Sanie, a descendant of Pierre Gaston, the estate’s pre-Revolution owner, is said to have married François-Armand Labory, and this is said to be how the family name came to be layered onto the hill’s name.
• For about a century up to 2023, Cos Labory is said to have remained with a single family — the Webers, and then the direct Audoy line. Its last proprietor, Bernard Audoy, decided to sell, citing the absence of a successor as he faced retirement at sixty-nine.