The family’s origins can be traced back to the middle of the 17th century at Créancey in the Auxois region, with the Lords of Commeau. Then comes the 18th century. ‘The domaine pre-dates the revolution; it was created in the 1730s, ‘states Hubert de Montille. It was re-named de Montille after the union of Marie Eléonore Chauvelot de Chevannes and Étienne Joseph Marie Léonce Bizouard de Montille, the grandfather of Hubert, on April 9, 1863. ‘Montille’ as he was known at the time, divided his time between the domaines in Volnay and Créancey and the Société des Agriculteurs de France, of which he was one of the founders.
The Domaine sat on a veritable treasure, which at the time was not recognized for its inherent value. 20 hectars of the most magnificent terroirs, planted with Pinot Noir in Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits, including Musigny, Bonnes Mares, Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru ‘les Amoureuses’… Today, these parcels make wine lovers (and winemakers) swoon, but they were sold off because of economic arbitration. ‘At the time,’ notes Étienne de Montille, ‘it was more common to sell vines than fields, as fields were more profitable.’ Little by little, the ancestors chipped away at the Domaine. In Burgundy, there is a saying: it only takes one generation to undo the work of many. When Hubert decided to stop this erosion, the family Domaine had been reduced to its smallest size of barely 2,5 hectares, composed of parcels of Volnay 1er Cru as well as the family Hosue of Volnay.
Now, if the family tradition demanded that the men should embrace a career in law, then the arrival of Hubert de Montille marked a turning of the page. Granted, he became a lawyer like his father, but he lived a double life between Volnay and Dijon, between the vines and the court. This pioneering and passionate man has engraved each vintage in his memory of him. Beginning with his first harvest in 1947, he broke with the custom of selling wine to negociants. Hubert de Montille was one of the first to believe in the future of the bottle. This new in-house strategy played an essential role in the future of the Domaine. ‘When you sell your wine in bottles, and not in bulk, the approach is completely different.
.Étienne de Montille learned about viticulture from an early age. But Hubert never would have passed his child the baton without him first learning ‘a real profession’. And, while he followed in the family’s footsteps by orienting himself towards a legal career, the inevitable return to the vine came quickly.
In 1983, after a year in the USA, Étienne started working at the Domaine. He learned from his father and through his enology studies until 1990, when he took over the vinification. In 1995, he became co-manager and began to move the Domaine towards organic farming. He also started to adapt the vinification to his own way of thinking.
In 2001, he returned full-time to Burgundian soil to devote himself to the domaine and the Château de Puligny-Montrachet. He took full control and asserted his style and is philosophy: biodynamic farming, whole cluster fermentation to add aromatics, and silkier wines with less austerity. All the while, he remained true to the vision he learned by his father’s side: authenticity, purity, elegance and balance.
In 2003, Étienne began to enlarge the Domaine with exceptional vineyards and then in 2005 he brought back into the fold some Clos Vougeot from the Côte de Nuit and a parcel just next to la Tâche in Vosne-Romanée “Les Malconsorts”!
Today, the Domaine count roughly 35 hectares of vines, of which 75% were Premiers or Grands Crus from both Côtes.