Located in the heart of the village of Puligny-Montrachet, arguably the greatest chardonnay producing area in the world, lies the Château de Puligny-Montrachet. This estate possesses an array of vineyards in the Côte de Beaune that has instilled envy in its neighbors for the past century. In the mid-1980’s the Thevenin family sold the estate to a large French bank who proceeded to renovate the property and produce decent, commercially popular wines for the next fifteen years. The current director of this bank (Caisse d’Epargne) is a wine-lover, and in 2001 he hired Etienne de Montille to take over the reigns at the estate. His mandate was to put the Château de Puligny-Montrachet back on the map as one of the great producers of the Côte de Beaune.
No expense has been spared in either the vineyards or the wine-making. The viticulture systems of the entire 19 hectare estate are in full transition to bio-dynamic farming. This, although costly in the short term, will eventually bring the vines back to a healthier state that was once common before the influx of chemical treatments in the vineyards. For example, the continual plowing of the vineyards (rather than using weed-killers) has already brought the very positive effect of added drought resistance. The idea here is that by plowing the top-soil, the roots are forced to plunge deeper in the earth to seek their nutrients. This, during the record-breaking heat of 2003, proved to be the difference between making well-balanced wines or not as those vineyards that were plowed fared far better than those who were treated chemically.
The modern winery built in the 1980s, although not as attractive as many old burgundy cellars, has proved to be almost perfect for making wine in the minimalist, gravity flow method that Etienne prefers. In addition, only indigenous yeasts are used and the wines are no longer fined or filtered. The preference is to allow a longer barrel-aging period so that the wines will settle naturally.
Etienne de Montille's influence:
In the fall of 2001 Etienne de Montille began taking over the reigns of the Domaine de Château de Puligny-Montrachet, an estate with one of the most prestigious array of vineyard holdings in the Côte de Beaune. He was in charge of the wine-making that fall and on January 1, 2002, took over full control of the estate. His goal is to produce wines from these magnificent vineyards that will rank with the very best of the region. As a prototype for the white wines from this estate, he uses the Puligny-Montrachet “Le Cailleret”, which his family estate in Volnay has been producing since the 1993 vintage. This has become one of the most sought after wines from Burgundy because it balances the de Montille obsession with purity of fruit and terroir with the glorious richness and power that the Chardonnay grape is capable of showing from vineyards in this small corner of the world. One need not look far for what the reds will be like over time as Etienne is one of the most respected of all red Burgundy producers. His first moves after taking over were to transform the vineyard practices by beginning the transition to biodynamic farming. The fruits of this change are already evident in the 2002 wines. All of the wines are now the result of fermenting with the local, indigenous yeasts. The wines are lightly fined with egg whites, and bottled un-filtered. Stirring of lees is actively pursued where appropriate.
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