Domaine de Montille Pulginy-Montrachet 1er Cru ‘Les Folatieres’ 2022

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About Domaine de Montille

Domaine de Montille is renowned as one of the finest domains in Burgundy. While the origin of the Domaine goes back to 1730 about, the modern history of the domaine started in 1947, when Hubert de Montille started to make the domaine’s wines at the age of 17, due to the death of his father. Four years later he took entire responsibility of the domaine.

As the domaine consisted of only 2.5 hectares at that time, he trained as a lawyer, and continued until his retirement to work both as a lawyer in Dijon and making the wines at the domaine. Hubert’s children, Etienne and Alix (was married to Jean-Marc Roulot) started helping in the domaine at young age, and Etienne had a second job (as an investment banker). But since 1990 Etienne started to take more responsibilities, and in 1995 became a co-manager of the domaine (although he continued working simultaneously in the bank until 2001). Under his lead the domaine’s reputation soared. Over the years by means of careful acquisitions, the domaine acquired more and more prime vineyards across the Côte d’Or, with the highlights being the acquisition of a fine parcel of Puligny Cailleret in 1993, of Corton Charlemange in 2004 and parts of the Thomas-Moillard estate in 2005 – including parcels in Vosne-Romanee Les Malconsorts, Clos de Vougeot and more.

In 2012, Etienne acquired the Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet, adding another 14 ha of prime vineyards (Chevalier Montrachet, Puligny Folatières, Meursault Poruzots, Saint Aubin “en Remilly”, Clos du Chateau de Puligny Montrachet, etc…) Today Domaine de Montille consists of 37 ha of vineyards, with respectively 23 ha under Domaine de Montille and 14 under Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet labels.

In 2003 Etienne started a negociant business with Alix nameds “les Deux Montilles” which specialize in white wines. They’ve since fine-tuned this historical great domaine and set it up as one of the finest domains of Burgundy.

In the Vineyard & Winery

The biggest change applied by Etienne in the vineyards was the decision in 1995 to become organic, and in 2005 to entirely switch to biodynamic. While Hubert’s wines were famous to their ability to age gracefully but show austerity when young, Etienne’s approach is to make more accessible wines through a philosophy of better vineyards’ management, reduced yields, elimination of chemical fertilizers, careful attention to phenolic ripeness and picking date, and fine tuned extraction and wine making technics (Hubert was known to make piegeage 6 to eight times per day during fermentation, and consistently used 25-50% whole cluster berries for making the wines – Etienne reduced it to 2 times per day and uses stems between non to 100% depending to the vintage).

What remained unchanged over the years is the restrained use of new oak. The wines remain in barrels for 14-18 months and normally bottled without fining or filtration.

The 2022 Vintage at Domaine de Montille

From Burghound

Etienne de Montille, owner of this large 37 ha domaine, and his chef de cave Brian Sieve, told me that 2022 “was a decidedly hot, and exceptionally dry, vintage that was lucky in the sense that there was just enough rain when we needed it. Even so, the rainfall wasn’t evenly distributed as there was definitely more water dropped in the Côte de Nuits than in the Côte de Beaune. The early season was exceptionally dry, in fact when we were plowing in April the tractors were kicking up dust clouds! The massive end of June storm was just what the viticultural doctor ordered and while it slammed Gevrey and Fixin, it was more moderate elsewhere. We chose to begin picking on the 26th of August and while the yields of the super-clean fruit were good, they were nowhere near what we obtained in 2023 even if they were much better than in 2021. This is to say that the chardonnay came in between 45 and 60 hl/ha with most wines averaging right at 50 hl/ha. By contrast, the pinot was more in the 38 to 45 hl/ha. Potential alcohols were pretty much the same in both colors at around 12.7 to 13.2%, which is perfect for the style that we wish to make. We used varying amounts of whole clusters, though most wines saw a minimum of 33% up to as high as 100%, for the vinifications where there were no hiccups in terms of the fermentations finishing. As to the wines, they have progressively improved month by month and what is remarkable given the relatively extreme growing season, the quality is just as good in white as it is in red. As to the comparative quality between the Côte de Nuits and the Côte de Beaune, we don’t really see much of a difference. Perhaps the Côte de Beaune reds are a bit more concentrated but other than that, it’s pretty much a tie, qualitatively speaking.” Note that the few wines that are in bottle were put there is December 2023 save for the Monthélie ‘Nature’, which was bottled in July. As the scores and wine commentaries confirm, there are some excellent wines in the range and the de Montille ’22s are warmly recommended.

Where in the world is Domaine de Montille?

Domaine de Montille was originally established in Volnay, but now operates out of Puligny-Montrachet. The domaine’s holdings total 35 HA, of which 20 HA are in 1er and Grand Cru vineyards, combined with 5 HA of top village wines, and 10 HA of Bourgogne Rouge and Blanc. Among their premier crus are a small handful of top terroirs — Grèves, Taillepieds, Rugiens-Bas, and Cailleret — deemed by Etienne (and many others) to be “Grand Premier Crus” and he makes this clear by listing the vineyard name above the appellation/village on these labels. The estate holdings are also supplemented by petit négociant activity started in 2003. Originally called Deux Montilles, it is now known as Maison de Montille. The goal of the project is to isolate small, interesting and somewhat undervalued terroirs from throughout the entire Burgundy region.