86-89 Points Allen Meadows: "Here the expressive nose is similar to the straight Bourgogne but with slightly better layering along with a floral top note. There is better volume to the nicely dense and succulent flavors that also exude a touch of rusticity on the clean and dry finale. This is worth checking out. (86-89)2025+"
By Brandon Kerne, Master Sommelier & Kelly Rau
The creative team behind Domaine de Montille stretched its wings over the last decade as they recovered from the passing of the estate's patriarch and Volnay icon, Hubert de Montille. This period has seen Etienne de Montille and Brian Sieve pressing for continued improvements at the estate, and in particular, the team has markedly improved the estate's whites in the last decade. You may remember they purchased Château de Puligny-Montrachet, greatly bolstering their white wine production. This estate had outstanding holdings in top terroirs of Puligny-Montrachet which now appear under the De Montille banner. De Montille's more mineral and minimalist style has replaced the Château de Puligny-Montrachet's richer, blousy style. With no clear intention of slowing down, they also began a search for a West Coast property upon which they could experiment with foreign terroirs. The fruits of this search matured in 2017, as the duo teamed up on the Racines project with Rodolphe Peters of Pierre Peters and Justin Willett of Tyler in the Sta. Rita Hills. We would be remiss to not mention that his brother-in-law is none other than Jean-Marc Roulot, and his guidance has certainly led the way for much of this improvement. All of this is to say that if you haven't tried the whites from this famed estate, you are missing out. While the wines have always been well regarded, they are pushing into an exciting new era.
The 2021 white wine releases from Domaine de Montille have landed. Domaine de Montille is one of the rare estates that produces excellent renditions of wines on both sides of the color aisle, but you'll have to wait a bit longer for the reds to arrive. Pickings are slim as the vintage conditions devastated volumes, but terrific wines were made. The style features purist fruit expression with tasteful and subtle flinty "reductive" notes. A clear feature is that the oak never protrudes into the foreground, but is always tastefully in the background. Acids in this vintage are fresh and bright, but you will find satisfying mid-palate density on all the wines. While the elite village wines, premier crus, and grand cru will draw your attention, the “hidden gems” in the line-up are the outstanding Saint-Aubin 1er Cru En Remilly that overlooks Chevalier-Montrachet and the Bourgogne Blanc from the “Clos du Chateau” [de Puligny]. This 5 Ha plot sits in front of the Chateau itself, and the wine could easily be mistaken for a Puligny itself. In fact, the 2020 release ranked as the staff's favorite value white Burgundy of last year. Lastly, getting Grand Cru white Burgundy from an elite producer for under $300 is a thing of yesteryear. The reviews on the Corton-Charlemagne are uniformly positive and it's nice to have some grand cru firepower around that doesn't belong in a museum. It is from the warmer Pougeots section and should be rewarding in a vintage like 2021 that could handle a bit of extra baby fat. Enjoy!
2021 Estate Summary, Vinous:
Head winemaker, Brian Sieve, receives me at de Montille’s Meursault winery, and as usual, he remains a wellspring of knowledge about the season. “We started the picking on 18 and 19 September. There was a huge difference in yields. For example, the Volnay Champans was cropped at 12hL/ha while Pommard Pézerolles was 40hL/ha, yet in 2022 the former was easier to prune. The difference is due to how far along the vine was in the growth cycle. We treated the vineyards 14 times in 2021 but only 8 or 9 in 2022. We remain organic and practicing biodynamic. Overall, we are about 65% down in the crus this year. There are significantly fewer whole clusters because the fruit was more susceptible and fragile, and if you tried to ‘work’ the growing season, you are walking on eggshells. I didn’t go into the vinification with heaps of confidence. I was trying to use bright, fresh fruit to make bright, fresh wines. The malos were quite normal, completed by the early summer. After we pressed off the grapes, I put them into stainless steel tank for three days, then racked them into another stainless steel before barrelling to enhance the fine lees that will nourish the wines during the second winter. The whites were racked at the end of July anticipating an early harvest, which was not quite as early as we were thinking.” This is a diverse set of wines, as one expects, given their portfolios strands the Côte d’Or with diversions into Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé. Highlights include cuvées from Vosne-Romanée Les Malconsorts and the Les Rugiens-Bas and Pézerolles from Pommard. In contrast, other cuvées reflect a very challenging growing season, verifying Sieve’s claim of not trying to push the wines. There are a couple, such as Clos de Vougeot, that don’t quite pass muster, then along trots something like Puligny Les Caillerets, that kicks the ball out of the park. Readers should note that their wide range is shorter not just because of the season but because some of the smaller cuvées, such as the Volnay Brouillard and Pommard Les Grands Epenots, are now made as kosher wines for a specific UK importer and therefore not presented for tasting.
