Wine Region: Burgundy - France
Grape: 100% Pinot Noir.
Tasting notes: "The 2018 Bourgogne Rouge from de Montille offers up a pure and expressive bouquet of raspberries and cherries, framed by delicate soil tones, followed by a medium-bodied, succulent and fine-boned palate, youthfully chewy tannins asserting themselves on the finish. It was vinified with around 25% whole clusters and saw some 5% new oak." William Kelley, The Wine Advocate.
About the winery: The De Montille family has long been a venerable one in Burgundy, though Domaine de Montille’s reputation was properly established in 1947: prominent Dijon lawyer Hubert de Montille inherited 2.5 hectares in Volnay, later adding further parcels in Volnay, Pommard and Puligny. Hubert’s style was famously austere: low alcohol, high tannin and sublime in maturity.
His son, Etienne, joined him from ’83 to ’89 before becoming the senior winemaker, taking sole charge from ’95. Etienne also managed Château de Puligny-Montrachet from ’01; he bought it, with investors, in ’12.
The two estates were separate until ’17, when the government decreed that any wine estate bearing an appellation name could no longer offer wine from outside that appellation.
The solution was to absorb the château estate into De Montille – the amalgamated portfolio is now one of the finest in the Côte d’Or.
Etienne converted the estate to organics in ‘95, and to biodynamics in 2005, making the house style more generous and open, focusing on the use of whole bunches for the reds.
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