Domaine du Monteillet, Les Hauts du Monteillet Syrah, Rhone, 2019

Stéphane Montez is the tenth generation of his family to be making wine in Chavanay, a village in heart of the Condrieu appellation. Since taking over in 1997, he has significantly increased the domaine’s vineyard holdings to 24 hectares with key parcels in Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu and Saint Joseph. The vertiginous nature of the granite and mica-schist based land means that almost all aspects of the vineyard work need to be undertaken by hand and represent an incredible human effort. In the winery, Stéphane likes to put his whites through skin contact before fermenting in wood whilst for his reds, he believes
in de-stemming for certain cuvées and leaving a proportion of whole bunch in others.