2019 Saint-Romain Village

One of the longest tastings in Burgundy was chez de Montille. This is due to the size of both their Domaine and négociant operations, also since the name subsumed the portfolio under Château de Puligny-Montrachet (except the morsels of white sold to Domaine d’Eugénie.) It is one of the few ranges that straddle both the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits in numbers. Head winemaker Brian Sieve was on hand to escort me through the wines. “We came off 2018 with a bountiful crop with beautiful wood for the pruning season,” Sieve explained. “So, the beginning of 2019 was as fluid as it could be, bud break very consistent because we pruned later. Everything was homogenous in the sense we didn’t have a lot of double [buds] nor bad frost where our vines are located. We had very little disease pressure, so we used minimal copper in the vineyard. In 2019 we had one of the five driest summers ever recorded, but we had a relatively normal 2018 and springtime in terms of rainfall. This meant we didn’t have [an excess of] fruit that could not be supported by the vines. You needed to nail your picking dates in 2019. We started the harvest on 6 September for the whites and finished on 17 or 18 September. We cropped at 30-40hl/ha and everything was balanced. The fruit was clean and healthy, the alcohol levels saw nothing over 13.4° for the whites and 13.5° for the reds. The pH was a touch higher than 2017. The Maison de Montille wines were racked before August and will be aged in barrel until February before they will be fined and bottled.”

Such is the range of de Montille’s portfolio both in terms of location and status that there will be some vineyards that perform better than others, not least in an atypically dry season. Sieve’s point about the impact of the previous growing season on 2019 is a salient one, much like the heavy downpours that accompanied my trip in October 2020 will benefit the vines next year, should another dry summer prevail. In comparing Maison and Domaine, it is useful to study the entry-level Bourgogne Rouge, the former de-stemmed and the latter containing 30% whole bunches and showing more complexity. Whereas the Maison de Montille wines might have wider appeal, the Domaine de Montille wines quite rightfully remain faithful to the style of winemaking espoused by the late Hubert de Montille. There are some real Premier Cru gems to look out for such as the Beaune Les Perrières, Volnay Taillepieds, Pommard Les Rugiens and a wonderful Nuits Saint-Georges Aux Thorey - one of my favourite Premier Crus in the appellation. This year there is little to choose between the regular Vosne-Romanée Les Malconsorts and the Cuvée Christiane. If I was to opt for one Grand Cru, then, like many producers, De Montille excelled with a Clos Vougeot that was extremely focused and complex.