Domaine du Monteillet

– Northern Rhône

ut simply, Stéphane Montez is an exceptional producer. He has been at the helm of the estate since 1997, with over 20 years of experience he still has a youthful energy that allows him to be a meticulous stickler for quality. As a 10th generation vigneron he is living up to the responsibility he has been given. Stéphane has some of the best vineyards in Cote Rotie, St Joseph and Condrieu. Excitingly, they have vineyards in less famous areas which allow a snapshot of the quality of the more prestigious wines. Viognier on the hillsides of Mont Pilat and Syrah on the outskirts of St Joseph, produce approachable wines and offer fantastic value. The famous terroirs are only in limited production and we regularly sell out of these but are happy to speak to those interested ahead of releases and will do our best to find you an allocation. 

Stéphane Montez’s wine making technique remains at heart very pragmatic with each vintage bringing separate challenges. Essentially his reds are still made by harvesting as early in the day as possible, whole or partial de-stemming, lightly crushing a percentage of the grapes when pumping them into tanks and then keeping them at around 16°C for up to 48 hours before allowing the fermentation to begin. He has begun to use more stems when vinifying his top red wines as he believes they help bring an extra dimension to the wines on the palate. He employs pump overs, déléstage and cap submersion as his primary extraction techniques but will still do occasional punch downs when he deems fit.

All the reds are barrel aged with malolactic fermentation always taking place in barrel. The source of the barrels, their age and size, vary depending on the wine but he has an increasing liking for 600 litre demi-muids. In the right vintage he will do a twelve-hour skin maceration for his top whites in order to extract not only extra flavour but also some of the available proteins to aid yeast fermentation.