Château Montus

Alain Brumont bought Château Montus in 1980, on the basis of the terroir's reputation in the 18th century. With its large reddish pebbles, this terroir is one of the last traces of the beginning of the Pyrenees, dating back 40 million years. Today's Pyrenees deposit large black pebbles marbled with white in our rivers.

Château Montus benefits from a superb terroir, unique in the Southwest, consisting of steep slopes with large pebbles on top of fine clay from the Pyrenees. A miracle occurred in 1985 when this wine upset the hierarchy of mythical red wines and was noticed all over the world, with its significant proportion of Tannat. Nicknamed the Petrus of the Southwest by a dozen wine critics for 30 years now, Château Montus expresses all the characteristics of these exceptional terroirs.

Alain Brumont among the greatest winemaker:

Elected among the 10 greatest wines in the world, Alain Brumont has rehabilitated ancient terroirs abandoned for nearly 50 years.

1979
Alain Brumont inherits his father's 17 hectare vineyard: Château Bouscassé.

1980
Alain Brumont buys Château Montus. It was at this point that he decided that the Tannat grape had the potential to make outstanding wines.

1985
First vintage of Montus Prestige. The first Madiran to be made from 100% Tannat and to be aged entirely in new barrels; it is dubbed the "Petrus of Madiran" by top international tasters. Thanks to this Prestige cuvée, a qualitative revolution takes place in Madiran, and the appellation is propelled to the ranks of France's finest. Madiran regains all its nineteenth century splendour.

1988
Construction of the underground barrel cellar at Château Bouscassé (1200 m²). It is the first cellar of this type to be built in the South

1990
Always looking for new terroirs, Alain Brumont finds a perfectly located 10 hectare hillside covered in large pebbles, providing ideal conditions for the Tannat grape; it is from this plot that he will produce Montus La Tyre, the finest Madiran ever made!

1991
Alain Brumont is rewarded with the title of Best French Winegrower of the 1980s by French magazine "Gault-Millau", and several articles in the press rank him among the world's top winemakers.

1995
Construction of a new winery at Château Montus, baptized the "Tannat Cathedral"!

1996
Château Montus Prestige 1995 is awarded the excellent score of 96 out of 100 points in Wine Advocate.

2000
First vintage of Montus La Tire.

2001
Launch of Torus, a new style of Madiran, offering tremendous power, depth, intensity, roundness, suppleness and elegance.

2003
Château Montus and the old winery are completely renovated; the château is converted into a superb venue for groups and seminars.

2005
Alain Brumont is selected to participate in the 2005 Wine Experience which assembles the world's 100 top wines in New York.

2006
Château Montus and Château Bouscassé are ranked among the finest wines in the world by Bettane and Desseauve in their eponymous book, "Les Plus Grands du Monde", in agreement with 50 other guides ranking the great wines of the world.

2007
A jury of 14 international tasters in Switzerland places Montus La Tyre 2001 third in the top ten of French wines.

Alain Brumont has plenty of plans for the future and doubtless has a few more surprises in terms of quality and style in store!

2010
Alain Brumont is voted to be in the top five French producers.

The Montus vineyards have well-drained warm terroir, resulting in well-ripened grapes. The vineyards lie on steep slopes (20-40%) fully south/south-west facing, intense sunshine, covered with large pebbles and subsoil with strata of brown and orangey clay. Very low yields with 5 to 6 bunches per vine. Here Brumont cultivates Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon (30 year-old vines).

The Tyre vineyard, with a perfect south-west orientatio and very steep terroir, benefits from lots of gentle sunshine. Consisting of rounded pebbles on top of the red variegated clay subsoil strata, there is often a very light breeze that ventilates the sun-warmed pebbled. Each vine is limited to 5/6 bunches to give full expression to the terroir. In 1990, in his constant search for the best terroirs, Alain Brumont noticed a large 10 hectare slope, completely uncultivated, located on the highest hill in the Madiran appellation (with an altitude of 260m). He felt sure that it had great potential and decided to purchase it and plant it with Tannat. La Tyre is simply the name of a district of the commune of Castelnau-Rivière-Basse. This exceptional wine comes from a selection of the best grapes from this plot, which today represents a great terroir.

"Alain Brumont has one ambition: that his actions as a winegrower are reflected in his wines. A tireless explorer of Gascon terroirs, promoter of local grape varieties, a gardener who lovingly tends his vines, a winemaker who is respectful of cultural roots, he is South-West France's leading wine producer, both in the Madiran and Parenchec du Vic Bilh appellations and in the Côtes de Gascogne. He has achieved his ambition: Bouscassé, Montus and Torus have become icons in the world of fine wines, and each vintage is an expression of his dream." Pierre Casamayor.

The terroirs and the grape varieties must be in harmony. To achieve this, we start by tasting the grape juice before picking them and by observing their colour. For a long time this method was ridiculed by the oenology institutes who sent us their future oenologists. Today, this is the method that oenologists use! Tasting the juice gives you an awareness of the various balances; you can begin to classify the terroirs and get an idea of the possibilities for blending different plots.

In the winery, hygiene relating to the vats and barrels is taken to a maximum.

Facilities have been installed to check and sort each grape.

No pumping over or transferring of the musts takes place during fermentation, only pigeage (an operation that used to consist of pushing the pomace cap down into the must using your feet, which have now been replaced by a machine).

There is no pressing, we only collect the free run juice after fermentation in order to obtain refined, elegant tannins.

Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrels for the top-of-the-range wines.

We introduced new barrels in 1980, ten years before it became fashionable in the 90s. Only great wines produced from great terroirs can really benefit from new wood. It is essential for volume, balance and finesse; but being able to taste wood in a wine is a sign of poor balance between the terroir and the grape varieties.