Domaine de Montille Bourgogne Rouge 2022
The Wine
87-90 Pts Jasper Morris MW, Inside Burgundy 'One third whole cluster. Fine bright purple. I love the bouquet here, fully ripe but clean and delicious. Perfectly balanced, good acidity, medium but fine-grained tannins. Pretty and floral finish. Drink from 2025-2029.'
86-89 Pts Allen Meadows, Burghound '(33% whole clusters). An exuberantly pinot-like nose of ripe red berries and soft earth nuances gives way to delicious and sleek if not especially dense flavors that possess an unusually refined mouthfeel before concluding in a solidly long finish where only a hint of rusticity slowly appears. To enjoy young. 2026+'
Picture 2 Etienne de Montille, tasting at Vaucluse Cellars 1 Feb 2011
The Details
Variety - Pinot Noir
Country - France
Region - Burgundy
Extra - Cork
Year - 2022
Volume - 750ml
About the Wine Maker 
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, that included prime vineyards (Chevalier Montrachet, Puligny Folatières, Meursault Poruzots, Saint Aubin “en Remilly”, Clos du Chateau de Puligny Montrachet, etc…)
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.
Etienne and Alix fine-tuned this historical great domaine and set it up as one of the finest domains of Burgundy.
