Château Cos d'Estournel was built at the beginning of the 19th century by Louis Gaspard d'Estournel. Nicknamed the Maharadjah of Saint Estèphe on account of his passion for travel to the Indies, he built exotic pagodas above the winery, in memory of the distant lands he had visited. The property's wine quickly gained a reputation as one of Bordeaux's finest and began to be exported all over the world; in the 1855 classification it was ranked as a second growth.