3 main named slopes

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1/ Les Gauthières

A slope located to the south of the village
In the Val de Sorne steephead valley
(south-east, south and south-west exposure)

The geology here is exceptional!

At the top are sandstone-limestones of the Sinemurian which are rich in Gryphaea and other fossils (from the Lias period). Mid-slope are the sandstones and oily, black shales and marls of the Rhetian, alongside variegated or speckled marls (from the Triassic).
Below are predominantly iridescent Triassic marls (Keuper).

Little by little, we have been able to purchase the various plots of this magnificent hillside. Belonging to a former monastic property, these vineyards were abandoned after the First World War due to difficult production conditions. The soils therefore boast the advantage of never having received any chemical inputs!

The new plantations were mainly Savagnin and Trousseau in the middle and at the top of the slope, since the conditions here are very favourable for these two local grape varieties. The lower part of the slope has been planted with Chardonnay to produce part of our Crémants.

For several years, we have been working to shape this magnificent hillside by recreating the plots of the past, re-establishing old drains and painstakingly rebuilding the ancient dry stone walls.

Scattered amonst the vines we also plant a large number of fruit trees which flourish in the region (mirabelle plums, plums, pears, apples…), as well as willows. We take care to respect the embankments and grassy strips surrounding the vines, and install nesting boxes for local birds and bats in order to encourage a return to the natural biodiversity present a century ago.

The land adjacent to this slope, acquired to protect our vineyard from any risk of pollution, is rented out and reserved for local farmers who pasture Montbéliard cows and horses there.

Anyone rambling along the GR59 footpath route passes through this plot, alongside a long, recently-renovated dry stone wall, and can stop to rest and admire the old tiled washhouse built in the 13^th century for the inhabitants of Montaigu who gathered there twice a year to wash their sheets. The origin of the spring that continuously feeds the fountain, even in the driest periods, remains a mystery to this day.

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2/ Behind the village

Slope located at the foot of the village
(southern exposure)

Located below the southern ramparts, which are visible remains of the village’s former fortifications, this plot is one of our family’s historic possessions, though it covers less than one and a half acres (55 ares). It is the smallest plot in our estate.

The upper part of it is on marl limestone and the lower part on loamy colluvial deposits. The whole is covered by limestone debris, chert and siliceous debris. It is exceptionally well drained, and the hill protects the vines from the north winds. Trousseau thrives in ideal conditions here.

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3/ En Boivin

Val de Vallière steephead valley
(east, north-east exposure)

At the top of the slope are marly limestones mixed with Bajocian scree. This spot is ideal for producing our Crémants which draw finesse, elegance and minerality from the terroir. In the middle and at the lower end of the slope the soil is clay and silt, the ideal combination for the Chardonnay and White Gamay varieties.

This is also where the estate’s most historic vineyard is located. Its soil composed of mica-rich marls from the Lias, clayey marls so heavy that they are exhausting to dig, gives us the estate’s emblematic cuvée “Cellier des Chartreux” (Chardonnay matured under a veil of yeast).

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Our vines were cultivated organically for centuries, benefitting from natural, empirically tested techniques, including manual hoeing. Yet two world wars and disease undermined activity throughout the Jura wine region, and sadly did not spare our plots, forcing our ancestors to adopt a mixed crop-livestock farming system. Our parents returned to exclusive winegrowing in the 1970s with the advent and development of agricultural chemistry, which for a time reigned absolutely, and which our parents likewise practised.

As the three of us reached adulthood, we quickly realised that weedkillers and other chemical sprays were in no way conducive to the production of good wines. It was therefore against our father’s advice that when we took over the estate in 1990, we decided to re-employ forgotten techniques by adopting the methods of Léandre, our grandfather, who in his day had no other choice than to come to terms with all that mother nature offered or threw at him. Thus we began experimental thermal weed control, tillage, and the gradual reduction of strong chemicals (anti-rot, insecticides, acaricides).

We had taken a stance, and our meetings with Yves Hérody, a geologist, then Pierre Masson, a consultant and trainer in biodynamics, gradually led to our being tempted by organic farming, and setting biodynamics as our ultimate goal.

In 1998, our vines received their first biodynamic preparations. Very quickly, the results were encouraging; the vines seemed to come back to life and the quality of the grapes they yielded was excellent. From one year to the next we have learned, progressed and improved, whilst also training the staff who support us in the rows of vines that have become increasingly productive.

Since 2002, the entire vineyard, which now amounts to 13 hectares (32 acres) of productive vines, has been cultivated biodynamically and the supreme accolade, obtaining Demeter certification, took place in 2003.

Over the years, the vineyard has grown thanks to the patient acquisition of land adjoining our existing plots. Our vines are now all located within the boundaries of the village, near our cellars.

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In 1986, to enable us to work in a more efficient winery, we acquired the “Lacuzon cellar” located in the heart of the village, near our historic cellar “la Cave des Chartreux”, in which we continue to age our wines that mature under a veil of yeast.

Welcome to this gateway to the Jura mountains, to its foothills known as the Revermont, which stretch north to south through the département in an impressive succession of ravines cut into the limestone plateau. A region where rocky outcrops and forests together form a geological border marking a clear boundary between the plains and the first of the Jura plateaux.

The village of Montaigu dates from the 13^th century and owes its fortified origins to the Counts of Burgundy. Sat upon a rocky spur, at the junction of two steephead valleys: that of Val de Vallière to the north and Val de Sorne to the south, it used to protectively watch over the saltworks in Lons-le-Saunier.

Very few traces of its castle remain, but the fortified character of the village is still visible in many of its buildings: the church, chapel, stronghold houses, ramparts, underground constructions, washhouses, cellars etc.

From its monastic past it retains the stamp of the Carthusians who received part of the vineyard as a gift in the 13^th century. These monks then built a splendid cellar with Gothic vaults and gradually began to select plots of land for vines. This gift was fortuitous for them, and consequently for us, because the two valleys provide excellent slopes with marl substrates providing an ideal terroir for vines. Most of the plots that our family has been tending since 1794 date from this period.

Locally, tales are still told of the time when Franche-Comté was resisting French occupation in the second half of the 17^th century, recounting in particular the military exploits of Lacuzon, our homegrown Robin Hood, who was at one point the owner of our small fortress and garrisoned within its walls.

And last but not least, Montaigu is known as the home of a famous composer; not the author of the well-known, bawdy ballad “From Nantes to Montaigu”, which in fact refers to a dike near France’s Atlantic coast, but the man who penned “La Marseillaise”, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle. This local celebrity was born in Lons-le-Saunier, but then spent all his childhood and much of his adult life in our village. Rouget-de-Lisle owned several plots of vines that were tended by local winegrowers, producing wine that aged in his cellars. His house, which was honoured by a visit from General de Gaulle in 1962 and which can still be admired from the street, is listed as a Historic Monument.