MONTAGNY 1ER CRU

Tasting notes
:

This brilliant, limpid Montagny Premier Cru is golden in colour and redolent of oak, vanilla and brioche. It is round and delectable on the palate with lovely vivacity and minerality. The finish is long and fragrant with flavours of almond and fresh and cooked apple.

Serving suggestions
:

This Montagny Premier Cru's freshness and minerality make it perfect as an aperitif served with salmon on toast and sushi. Enjoy this delicate wine with fine fish such as bream or sole, seafood or poultry.

Serving and keeping
:

Serve between 12° and 13°C.
This wine is ready to drink though it may be laid down for 5 to 7 years or more.

At the heart of the Côte Chalonnaise, the vineyards for this appellation form a vast amphitheatre on the slopes that stretch across 4 villages including that of Montagny-lès-Buxy. This 301-hectare appellation is exclusively devoted to the cultivation of Chardonnay grapes. Its terroir is often compared with that of Mercurey and its wines rival their white Mercurey counterparts.
It was the Romans who introduced viticulture to the region, and, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance the appellation was referred to as "Côte de Buxy".
The vines are planted at altitudes of between 280 and 380 metres in clay-limestone soil with a certain proportion of Jurassic Lias and Trias marls. The relatively steep slopes benefit from south/south-eastern exposure.

Work in the vineyards
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Our approach to viticulture at our estates serves as a reference for our partner growers. Their vineyards are followed up on by our teams with the same care as for our own vineyards. Long-term partnerships with growers allow us to establish precise objectives to be reached, especially as far as the health of the grapes, yields, and the ripeness of the grapes at harvest time are concerned.

Vinification:

Made with purchased grapes or musts (the grapes are pressed by our partner growers), we vinify this exceptional wine in oak barrels. The diverse origins of the barrels (the Tronçais, Allier and Vosges forests), their particular degree of toasting and their age all contribute to our quest for bringing out the aromatic complexity that this special terroir has to offer. Alcoholic fermentations are long, lasting from 6 weeks to 2 months, and are carried out at cellar temperature using indigenous but not aromatic yeasts.

Ageing
:

In our centuries-old cellars, we age this wine for 14 to 16 months according to tradition in oak barrels. During this time, the wine acquires structure and complexity through stirring of the lees, malolactic fermentation and the influence the barrels have on the wine (olfactory interactions and oxidoreduction).