2019 Côte-Rôtie Fortis

Stéphane Montez represents the 10th generation of his family in Saint-Michel-sur-Rhône. Montez is a tireless farmer, winemaker and salesman, producing a wide range of outstanding wines from his family’s 34 hectares across the Northern Rhône. Montez is planting a new, high-altitude site in Cornas, plus a new vineyard in Saint-Péray. Stéphane Montez lives on the winery property and accepts visitors and clients night and day, on Sundays and holidays, which is still quite rare in the region, or most of France, for that matter. This writer often visits him as early as 5:00 am and as late as 9:00 pm, depending on his schedule. These are highly expressive, cellar-worthy wines, which Montez acknowledges by releasing most of them a fair bit later than most of his colleagues.