2019 Volnay, Les Brouillards, 1er Cru, Domaine de Montille, Burgundy
Critics reviews
Brouillards is one of the wines, which has been made under kosher conditions in 2020. The 2019 has been made with 100% whole cluster and 28% new barrel. Paler purple in colour, this is showing its oak a little bit in its youth. Fairly strict at the back, but with good potential.
Jasper Morris MW, InsideBurgundy.com (October 2020)
100% whole clusters.
A more elegant nose combines lovely spice and an abundance of floral elements with those of ripe fruit that derive more from the red side of the spectrum. The elegance continues on the beautifully textured, refined and lacy middle-weight flavours that exude a subtle bead of minerality on the youthfully austere, balanced and sneaky long finish. This classically styled Volnay is presently not particularly complex, but the potential appears to be present for more to develop.
Drink from 2029 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (April 2021)
The 2020 Volnay Les Brouillards 1er Cru is kosher wine for the first time, the Montille team does not touch the equipment in the winery (although they can do the sorting.) It has an open-knit bouquet with pure blackberry and raspberry. The palate is well balanced, the 100% whole cluster neatly integrated, quite crunchy fruit with a linear finish. Fine. Closure: Diam
Drink 2024 - 2042
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (December 2021)
About this WINE
Domaine de Montille
The De Montille family has long been a venerable one in Burgundy, though Domaine de Montille’s reputation was properly established in 1947: prominent Dijon lawyer Hubert de Montille inherited 2.5 hectares in Volnay, later adding further parcels in Volnay, Pommard and Puligny. Hubert’s style was famously austere: low alcohol, high tannin and sublime in maturity.
His son, Etienne, joined him from ’83 to ’89 before becoming the senior winemaker, taking sole charge from ’95. Etienne also managed Château de Puligny-Montrachet from ’01; he bought it, with investors, in ’12.
The two estates were separate until ’17, when the government decreed that any wine estate bearing an appellation name could no longer offer wine from outside that appellation.
The solution was to absorb the château estate into De Montille – the amalgamated portfolio is now one of the finest in the Côte d’Or.
Etienne converted the estate to organics in ‘95, and to biodynamics in 2005, making the house style more generous and open, focusing on the use of whole bunches for the reds.
Volnay
The finest and most elegant red wines of the Côte de Beaune are grown in Volnay, a village which might be twinned with Chambolle- Musigny in the Côte de Nuits, for the high active chalk content in the soil and comparatively low clay content.
Whereas in earlier times Volnay was made in a particularly light, early drinking style, these days there are many producers making wines which age extremely well. The best vineyards run either side of the RN73 trunk road.- 98 hectares of village Volnay
- 115 hectares of Premier Cru vineyards (35 in all). The finest include Les Taillepieds, Clos des Chênes, Champans, Caillerets (including Clos des 60 Ouvrées) and Santenots in Meursault.
- Recommended producers: Lafarge, Lafon, de Montille
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or.
Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
Because of the thinness of the skins, Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour, body and tannins. However the best wines have grip, complexity and an intensity of fruit seldom found in wine from other grapes. Young Pinot Noir can smell almost sweet, redolent with freshly crushed raspberries, cherries and redcurrants. When mature, the best wines develop a sensuous, silky mouth feel with the fruit flavours deepening and gamey "sous-bois" nuances emerging.
The best examples are still found in Burgundy, although Pinot Noir`s key role in Champagne should not be forgotten. It is grown throughout the world with notable success in the Carneros and Russian River Valley districts of California, and the Martinborough and Central Otago regions of New Zealand.
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Description
100% whole clusters.
A more elegant nose combines lovely spice and an abundance of floral elements with those of ripe fruit that derive more from the red side of the spectrum. The elegance continues on the beautifully textured, refined and lacy middle-weight flavours that exude a subtle bead of minerality on the youthfully austere, balanced and sneaky long finish. This classically styled Volnay is presently not particularly complex, but the potential appears to be present for more to develop.
Drink from 2029 onward
Allen Meadows, Burghound.com (April 2021)
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