de MONTILLE & HOKKAIDO

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de Montille & Hokkaido Project

Domaine de Montille is a 300 years old family-owned wine estate in Burgundy, France, one of the most famous and oldest wine producing regions. The current owner, Etienne de Montille, believes in the potential of Japan for high quality wines and especially Hokkaido for the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay varietals.

This is why in 2016, he decided to launch the de Montille & Hokkaido”project that is, to our knowledge, the first vineyard in Japan being planted by a foreign wine producer. The Japanese viticulture is quite modest by international standards with 2.000 of ha planted of wine-grapes and about 200 wineries within the four main regions of production that are Hokkaido, Nagano, Yamagata and Yamanashi.

Our project is pioneering by essence and cooperative by nature. The de Montille & Hokkaido project intends to fully share the millenium old know-how and experience from Burgundy with the community of winemakers of Japan while the new generation of Japanese producers will share their skills and knowledge of Hokkaido terroirs and climate with our team so that we will all together learn and try to find the ways to produce high quality wines expressing the terroirs of Hokkaido with their unique characters.

Our Japanese-French team planted about 7 hectares to date in our vineyard in Hakodate and we aim at gradually planting up to 25 hectares. The first wines coming from our own vineyards will be produced in 2023 and we engaged into the process of building our winery with the help of the city of Hakodate. Meantime, from 2018 to 2022, we are able to produce small quantities of wines for with grapes coming from friendly Hokkaido vine growers in the Yoichi region. This allows us to learn and understand how to vinify Hokkaido grapes in a Japanese environment.

During these five years of learning, we wish to reserve this production for Japanese wine lovers only and share with them some strong feelings we experienced during this fascinating adventure. This is why the labels will be different for each of these 5 vintages (2018 to 2022).

In the future, we will sell our de Montille & Hokkaido wines from Hakodate in Japan but also overseas and will to our best to contribute to the growing fame of Japanese wines in the world thanks to this new generation of talented producers we feel privileged to work with.

2016

Project start

2019

First vine planting

2020

豪 2018 first release

2023

Start our winery
in Hakodate

KERNER
2019

Variety: Kerner

Contents: 750ml

Alcohol content: 12%

Clear green with sparkle. The aroma is fresh and lively, with nose of well-melted barrels of white flowers, mimosas, linden trees and hazelnuts. The taste is brightly sour, generous and mellow. It's a very well-balanced wine.

PINOT NOIR
2019

Variety: Pinot Noir

Contents: 750ml

Alcohol content: 12%

Purple with a pale shine. Freshly crushed strawberries and small red fruits give off a complex aroma of rose petals, floral tones of peony and aromas of acerola and white pepper with a lively acidity. On the palate, the delicate and vibrant tannins blend in well, and finally the tannins with mineral nuances are felt. It's a very elegant Pinot Noir made in a cool climate.

ZWEIGELT
2019

Variety: Zweigelt

Contents: 750ml

Alcohol content: 12%

Purple with deep ruby nuances. It gives off a fascinating scent of violets, red fruits, black cherries and white pepper, and nutmeg. It has a fine body, great texture, volume & length and is very well balanced. It has a fresh and lively finish.

Kyo Surprise 2019

From 2018 to 2022, we will produce small quantities of wines from grapes coming from friendly Hokkaido vine growers in the Yoichi region and vinify thanks to a partnership with Coco Farm and Mr Bruce Gutlove (10R Winery).

During these five years of learning, the production is reserved for Japanese wine lovers only and we wish to share with them some of the strong feelings we experienced during this fascinating adventure. A different label will express one of the feeling for each of these 5 vintages (2018 to 2022).

2018, our first vintage, expresses the boldness and willingness to take on unprecedented and hard challenges of a Burgundy producer planting vineyards in Hakodate and making wines in Hokkaido. We chose " 豪 Go Oser" .

2019, our second vintage expresses the numerous surprises and wonders that we encountered during this journey. The 2019 vintage was a surprise in itself with a warmer season and riper than usual grapes. We named it “ 驚 Kyo Surprise”.