Domaine du Monteillet

Stéphane Montez is the tenth generation of his family to be making wine in Chavanay, a village in heart of the Condrieu appellation. Since taking over in 1997, he has significantly increased the domaine’s vineyard holdings to 24 hectares with key parcels in Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu and Saint Joseph. The vertiginous nature of the granite and mica-schist based land means that almost all aspects of the vineyard work need to be undertaken by hand and represent an incredible human effort. In the winery, Stéphane likes to put his whites through skin contact before fermenting in wood whilst for his reds, he believes in de-stemming for certain cuvées and leaving a proportion of whole bunch in others. Only indigenous yeasts are used and temperatures for the reds are kept low and maceration times are extended. Ageing for the reds takes place in 228 litre barrels but increasingly so in 600 litre demi-muids.

Rhône Valley

FRANCE

Since the 17th century, the Monteillet estate has belonged to the Villard family, the most famous representative of which is Louis Hector, Duke of Villard, Marshal of France of Louis XIV (1653-1734).

Patiently, gradually, Stéphane Montez’s ancestors, winemakers, mariners, coopers, animated by the love of the Rhône and the work of the vineyard, buy back plot by plot of land.
A notarial deed from 1741 shows us Michel “master carpenter on the Rhône and cooper” ancestor of Stéphane Montez, buying a vine at Monteillet.
His descendants, after the Revolution, continue their acquisitions.
Today Stéphane Montez succeeds his father Antoine, who passed on all his know-how to him.
Thus the Montez plant, vinify, raise and market their wines, on 38 hectares and four appellations.

Viticulture

It is in these hillsides organized in terraces supported by dry stone walls called “chaillées” that the vines flourish and form thanks to their privileged South / South-East exposure. The Chaillées were built 2000 years ago by the Romans. The terroir of the vineyards of St Joseph Nord, Côte-Rôtie and Condrieu are located on the slopes of the right bank of the Rhône. The terraces of the domain are located on the eastern periphery of Mont Pilat (1434 m above sea level) which protects them from bad weather (the Domaine du Monteillet records one of the lowest annual rainfall in the region). They overlook the Rhone Valley continuously bringing a pure and light breeze sanitizing the berries. The comb of Montelier flowing into the Rhone corridor regularly creates a fresh ventilation, preserving the aromatic purity of the wines and limiting the diseases of the vine. The main rocks are “crystalline” formations, that is, plutonic magmatic rocks (Granites) and metamorphic rocks (schists, gneiss, migmatites).

Winemaking

Manual harvesting The picking is done manually, in small boxes. The grapes picked at optimum maturity are transported quickly and delicately to preserve the color, smell and taste. The grapes are sorted in the vineyard by the pickers and in the cellar on a sorting table in order to select the best berries. All the bunches are then destemmed.