Terroir Insight: Domaine de Montille Malconsorts Cuvee Christiane

One rarely see a producer in Burgundy making two different wines from the same vineyard, unless it’s a declassification of young and younger wines.

Etienne de Montille has however decided to make two cuvees from Vosne-Romanee Aux-Malconsorts – one regular cuvee made from two plots inside Malconsorts and a special cuvee made from a 0.4765 ha plot located on the southeastern corner of La Tâche Joly de Bévy – he has named this cuvee after his mother Chistiane .. so it must be something special .. and it is in my view.

So lets go walkabout in the La Tâche outskirts.

Ownership history – from Marey to Montille

The special plot “inside” La Tâche has an interesting ownership history … with only three owners during the last 200 years.

As usual the ownership history is quite well documented by the three main sources – Lavalle, Danguy & Aubertin and Rodier.

In 1855 Lavalle¹ mentioned the following owners on Malconsorts: Lenoir, Marey and Moisenet-Meulien.

The ownership history before 1855 is somewhat unclear, but the Marey family could well have acquired the plots on Malconsorts shortly after the revolution i.e. late 18th century or early 19th century. Marey was well known as one of the major owners in Vosne-Romanee in the 19th century and onwards. Some of the vineyards were later included in the Liger-Belair holdings as Comte Louis Liger-Belair married the daughter of Guillaume Felix Marey and took over the management of C.Marey and Comte Liger-Belair in 1869 – at the death of Guillaume Felix Marey.

Danguy & Aubertin² mentioned the following owners in 1892: Dr Chanut, Liger-Belair and Veuve de Millot. The only remaining owner from 1855 was Liger-Belair (Marey).

Rodier (1920)<sup3< sup=””> showed a wider range of owners: Liger-Belair, Jacques Chambon, Henri Lamache, Grivelet-Modot and Mallbranche-Morand. Liger-Belair remained owner of the main part of the vineyard. New owner was Grivelet-Modot – most likely plots acquired from the Chanut estate together with the Frantin estate. </sup3<>

During the late 1920s and early 1930s the financial crises hit Burgundy and a lot of vineyards changed hands in this period.

The Liger-Belair vineyard holdings were auctioned away in 1933 and only a small selection of vineyards remained under the Liger-Belair ownership. The extensive holdings in Malconsorts were acquired by the Thomas-Moillard estate – including the plot located just next to the original La Tâche vineyard – the plot above the dotted line on the map below.

Finally in 2005 the Thomas-Moillard holdings on Aux Malconsorts were sold to Domaine Dujac and Domaine de Montille. The two buyers divided the plots amongst them – with Montille getting the plot located “inside” La Tâche and Dujac getting the other plots located closest to La Tâche. Montille also got the plots southern end of the Thomas-Moillard holdings – see the current ownership map below.

The Aux Malconsorts Christiane terroir

The Domaine de Montille Vosne-Romanee Aux Malcomsorts Christiane is made from a 0.4765 ha plot located in lower northern part of the Malconsort vineyard – just next to the original part of La Tâche – previously called La Tâche Joly de Bévy and just above Vosne-Romanee les Chaumes – see map below.

The location of the plot is pretty special, as it’s located “inside” La Tâche Joly de Bévy, and while it has never been a part of that vineyard it still has a mythical status due to the unique geographic location.

The border towards La Tâche Joly de Bévy have remained more or less unchanged since the first cadastre maps from 1827 – see below.

The “border” towards the rest of Malconsorts has however changed, as the plot “inside” La Tâche have been expanded to fill the area underneath the La Tâche. But since the plot “inside” La Tâche was not vinified separately before 2005 these borders inside Malconsort had little or no meaning during the previous ownership.