2018 Saint-Romain Village

I spent two hours at Domaine de Montille with Etienne de Montille and winemaker Brian Sieve. I tasted their entire portfolio that is now simply divided into Domaine de Montille and their négociant arm under Maison de Montille. Etienne was clear that their focus is no much more upon their own vineyards, hence the number of cuvées under Maison de Montille is smaller than it was a few years ago. Their portfolio has also subsumed the cuvées hitherto bottled under the Château du Puligny-Montrachet label, since the authorities now forbid names of appellations to be within names of domaines (unless you are Domaine de la Romanée-Conti!) This makes this tasting now much more straightforward as before there were a couple of cuvées under both names. Sieve explained the 2018 growing season. "Our nights were not that cold and so photosynthesis started very early in the morning, more sunlight going into the fruit. People that suffered were those that had frost or hail in 2017. In 2016 our yields were acceptable and this translated into balanced yields in 2017 and 2018. In 2018 we didn’t have anything above 48hl/ha for the reds but it was above that for the whites, albeit mainly driven by the Bourgogne Blanc. The 2018 was hot but we did not have scorching days like in 2019. At harvest, the temperature was 14-15°C and extraction happened within three days, whereas in 2019 you needed to extract more. The highest alcohol is 13.3% with 90% of the cuvées around 12.9-13.1% range." De Montille then offered his own thoughts on the size of the crop. "The abundance was not because of human action. It just happened that at some stage nature’s parameters were aligned in terms of water availability, flowering, sanitary condition and so on that it was so abundant for white grapes. The last time was in 1982 but we were looking for more grapes back then." Readers should note that all their white wines have been bottled under Diam since 2011.