Right before Pesach, I had the opportunity to partake in a release event for the 2021 Domaine de Montille kosher burgundies. The event was a dinner held at The David Kempinski Hotel in Tel Aviv and was organized by their Israeli importer Shmuel Gottlieb of Geshem Spirits. Just a couple of words about Shmulik and Geshem. Shmuel has put together a boutique distributorship – picking up a number of interesting productions over the years – like the La Tour Blanche, which really didn’t have a home in Israel. He also until recently was distributing all of the M & M Italian wines as well as Cantina Giuliano. I know that the M & M stuff has stopped – not sure what the future is on the Cantina Giuliano – but he has also recently picked up the rights to distribute a good part of the IDS portfolio in Israel (which is really nice as the distribution of the IDS wines in Israel for the last few years has been “iffy” at best). So he keeps things interesting and at the highest quality – and quite frankly he is a great guy, a mensch, who is super service oriented. Kudos to him for putting this all together. The Chef at the David Kempinski is Mor Cohen, who used to be the Chef at Herbert Samuel in Hertzlia – so my expectations were high, and I was not disappointed. In fact, this was the most professionally run wine tasting I have been to in Israel. The staff and service were both excellent. The room was pristine. The food was understated, yet well prepared, with a menu designed to really let the wines be the star. This was not a pairing dinner with aged wines meant to highlight the food as much as the wines. This was a release event with food meant to accompany the wines in an unobtrusive yet elegant way. Trust me, if you have read my posts about Chef Cohen’s previous wine events at Herbert Samuel in support of Vitkin or Covenant, he is certainly more than capable of executing that kind of menu – but that wasn’t the point here. In any event, I have included some pictures of the food and menu so you can get a feel for what went on. Also, while we were gathering, Shmulik had the Bonnet Ponson champagne poured, which I had not had in a while, so that was an extra added treat.
An interesting fact I learned that evening – Honest Grapes did NOT commission the kosher de Montille wines. The kosher runs were actually initiated by the winery itself. Honest Grapes in the UK is an importer that both deals with a ton of burgundy (non-kosher) AND has a kosher line that they are involved in getting produced – and as such de Montille turned to them for help in creating a match between the winery and a kosher production team. Honest Grapes also then bought the entirety of the initial kosher production (2020) and likely contracted for a significant number of subsequent productions, but they are not the negociant here. I don’t know all of the specifics (nor do I care). And none of this is a negative comment on Honest Grapes, who are really wonderful folks doing a great and professional job. But it is nice to see that the winery itself was interested in producing these wines and are intimately involved in making sure that they live up to the standards of the winery. Now on to the wines.
The de Montille 2020 wines are a tough act to follow. That was, simply put, an OUTSTANDING vintage. 2021 was perhaps not as good as far as vintages were concerned overall – and – to make things more complicated, the Chagim fell out in a way that made it challenging to say the least to produce kosher wines in Burgundy. But I knew all of that going in and so my expectations were not through the roof, and overall I was rather pleased. Also, as it happened, I was able to taste two out of the three whites and the lower end red blind prior to this tasting. The red was exactly as my previous tasting. On the whites, the Bourgogne showed a touch better and the Monthelie a touch worse – but we are talking within a half point on both. I used the higher score in both cases here as I believe that reflects the potential. Here are my notes:
Whites:
2021 Domaine de Montille, Bourgogne, Blanc – 12.5% abv – The nose here was muted and really not expressive outside of some vague citrus notes with a little bit of grassy undertone. In the mouth, it is really nice and even a has some really strong flavors – with a bit of peach, honey blossom, some hay, and pomelo. The acid keeps things lively. There is not a whole lot of complexity here, and the finish is perhaps medium plus – but this is an entry level white burgundy and the flavors are all there, and quite honestly it’s just a really fun wine to drink! 91
2021 Domaine de Montille, Monthelie, Premier Cru, Les Duresses – 12.5% abv – Another muted nose at first, but when it opens, we have nice rich lemon, lanolin, and quince with some sweet oak in the background. In the mouth, the oak is more pronounced and hits you up front, followed by lemon, mineral, and light-yellow flower blossoms. The finish is nice with good mineral, some saline, and of course, the lemon, and a bit of smoke. There is more depth and complexity to this wine than the Bourgogne, though the Bourgogne is more intense flavor-wise at this stage. This wine has room to grow and perhaps the time to let the oak calm down a bit – so there is some real potential here. 91.5
2021 Domaine de Montille, Puligny-Montrachet, Premier Cru, Les Chalumeaux – 12.5% abv – So if you must know, this is the wine I was waiting for. The 2020 was off the charts good and is virtually tied for the best kosher white burgundy ever produced. While the 2021 is not THAT good, it’s no slouch. It brings it all to the table, complexity, intensity, depth. Just awesome with a basket of citrus on the nose, lemon, orange, pomelo – leading the charge. There are also floral notes here that are much more prominent than in the previous wine. The mouth basically repeats in terms of primary flavors, but there is a wonderful depth and nuttiness that expresses itself as well as some nice mineral that really focuses the wine. The finish is long and intense with more sweet citrus – mostly pomelo and orange, mineral, saline and those floral notes. Really nice. 92+
Reds:
2021 Domaine de Montille, Bourgogne – 12.5% abv – OK. So, again, this is a wine I tasted bind. During that tasting without knowing anything at all, it was obviously PN and obviously French, in that the body was correct for French PN. But outside of that, there were just basic generic PN notes – with decent cherry, a bit of cedar, and maybe a hint of strawberry. Very basic. No depth, but perfectly fine. I scored it an 87+. I was shocked when it ended up being a de Montille wine. Obviously it didn’t impact my score, as I scored it blind. But this is where the label sort of raises the bar. I half hoped that when I would retaste, perhaps I could score higher, but ultimately, the wine is what it is. A pleasant entry level Bourgogne. 87+
2021 Domaine de Montille, Beaune, Premier Cru, Les Perrieres – 12.5% abv – Another muted nose here with just some faint cherry making its way through. In the mouth, you do get cherry, plum, some anise, herb, and some nice chalky mineral. Not bad, but a little basic. The finish was medium at best (maybe even less). Overall a rather simple wine. (Though I am told that this wine does improve over 24 hours.) 89+
2021 Domaine de Montille, Volnay, Premier Cru, Les Brouillards – 13% abv – The nose here was full of red fruit, earth, smoke, and some nice herb. In the mouth, the wine opens up with red cherry, tart raspberry, excellent earth, some floral notes, smoked meat, bramble, dark roast coffee, and good mineral. The tannin here provides good structure and there is nice balancing acidity. Really this is the full package. The finish is long and dark, with mineral, more roasted coffee, cherry, and smoke. Really excellent stuff. 93.5
2021 Domaine de Montille, Pommard, Premier Cru, Les Grands Epenots – 13% abv – Wow, what a nose (best of the night!) pure class. Nice red fruit (cherry and a hint of raspberry), beautiful rich earth, some violet, and a hint of smoke. Really nice. In the mouth also, very nice, with cherry and raspberry as expected, followed by a little bit of funk – couldn’t exactly pinpoint it – with some nice earthiness. This is the most tannic of the wines so far. Nice structure. The finish is long and a little on the sweeter side with ripe red fruit, sweet spice, and a hit of mocha. Overall very nice, if a little behind the Volnay (which for me is surprising, because I’m a big Pommard fan in general). 92+
2021 Domaine de Montille, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Premier Cru, Aux Thorey – 13% abv – This bottle was the only bottle that posed a problem for me. When I tasted this wine, there were clear vegetal notes that, while not dominant, ran through the wine. It didn’t make it unpleasant – it was just not the profile one would expect. But when we asked by the person leading the tasting, (I believe it was the non-kosher Israeli importer of de Montille) half the people ranked it near the top of the list on the red side – while for me, it was at the bottom. And then I noticed that everyone who loved this wine was sitting on the other side of the table – and they all were served from a different bottle. I made my way over there and was able to get a taste from that bottle and lo and behold, none of those vegetal notes. I had heard vastly different notes on this wine from the few who had tasted it – and now it all made sense. I am pretty sure there is bottle variation here. I don’t know to what extent – as I think the bottle I was served that night initially was vegetal – while some others who tasted elsewhere reported a more generic “green” and that is not necessarily the same thing. The “good” bottle did have some nice herb, cedar, and bramble – but I wouldn’t necessarily have called it green either. Anyhow here are my notes on the better bottle, which I hope is more representative of the average experience. The nose here is ripe and red with some toasted herb. In the mouth, you get ripe dark red cherry, raspberry and a bit of plum, cedar, herbs, and bramble. The acid makes it work and there is decent tannin to make it a little interesting structure wise. The finish is long and has more of the herbal cedar notes that come through here. Nice wine. 90.5