Domaine de Montille

Domaine de Montille is based in Volnay, in the Côte de Beaune. The family's roots run back to the seventeenth century at Créancey in the Auxois, and the estate took the name Domaine de Montille after a marriage in 1863. Phylloxera and successive sales reduced the holding to about 2.5 hectares by the end of the Second World War. Hubert de Montille, who practised law in Dijon for most of his working life, took charge in 1947 at the age of seventeen and rebuilt the estate over the following decades, bottling at the domaine at a time when most Burgundy was sold to négociants.

Etienne de Montille, Hubert's son, joined in 1983, took over the cellar and then the management during the 1990s, and has run the estate full time since 2001. Purchases in the Côte de Nuits in 2005, made jointly with Domaine Dujac, brought Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Aux Malconsorts, part of which is bottled separately as Cuvée Christiane, named after Etienne's mother. That parcel of 0.49 hectares adjoins La Tâche but has never formed part of it. The purchase of Château de Puligny-Montrachet in 2012, completed with its remaining holdings in 2017, added around 15 hectares of white wine vineyards, among them 0.23 hectares of Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru. The estate now works around 35 hectares across both Côtes. The family also runs a small négociant business, started in 2003 as Deux Montille and now called Maison de Montille, which is a separate operation from the domaine.

The domaine has farmed organically since 1995 and biodynamically since 2005, and all its wines are certified by Ecocert. The reds are fermented with a variable proportion of whole bunches and matured in oak, with new barrels kept to a minority of the total. Arcana Cabinet lists five wines from the domaine: Volnay Premier Cru En Champans, Pommard Premier Cru Les Pézerolles, Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru Aux Malconsorts and its Cuvée Christiane, and Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru. This is a selection and not the domaine's full range.