Domaine Feuillat-Juillot

Parcel by parcel in Montagny

The fruit is kept separate before it becomes a blend. Françoise Feuillat-Juillot, winemaker at Domaine Feuillat-Juillot in Montagny-les-Buxy, works from that first decision: each parcel has its own reading, and the cellar should not blur it too early. Her practice starts in the vines, with hand harvesting and soil work, then follows the fruit into the cuverie with the same restraint. She trained in Paris and at the University of Dijon, but the discipline here comes from time on the tools as much as from study. From 1989 to 2004 she worked as partner at Domaine Bertrand-Juillot in Montagny-les-Buxy, joining a local winegrower when the estate held 14 hectares, with 8 hectares planted. In 2004 she became owner and manager of Domaine Feuillat-Juillot. The change did not loosen the thread. The domaine remains family-run, Chardonnay-led, and closely tied to Montagny Premier Cru, with Les Coères held as the plot that gives the house its clearest accent.

Chardonnay held in steel and lees

The method at the domaine favors legibility. Grapes are harvested by hand, then vinified parcel by parcel, so the difference between sites can be kept intact before any final judgment in the cellar. The vineyards are worked under an organic philosophy, with conversion begun in 2021 and organic certification expected in 2024. The estate received HVE 3 certification in 2020. In the cellar, alcoholic and malolactic fermentations take place in thermoregulated stainless steel cuves, a choice that keeps the Chardonnay line clean and gives Françoise control over pace and temperature without asking oak to carry the wine. The wines are aged on fine lees for 8 months, building texture without covering the fruit. Neutral barrels have a smaller, quieter role. The domaine’s range stays close to its ground: Montagny AOC, Montagny Premier Cru AOC, and Rully AOC, with still white wines at the center, alongside sparkling and still red bottlings. Production grew over Françoise’s early years at the estate from 5,000 to 60,000 bottles annually, but the grammar of the work remained Burgundian: site, fruit, vessel, time.

The cellar before the tasting room

The place reads first as a working Burgundy domaine, not a designed destination. Visitors come into a quiet cellar atmosphere, down-to-earth and close to the vines, where the tasting follows the estate rather than the other way around. The room keeps the pace of a family property in the Côte Chalonnaise: intimate, practical, and shaped by appointments that can move from glass to vineyard without ceremony. Les Coères gives the conversation a fixed point, because the plot sits at the center of how the domaine explains Montagny Chardonnay. The wines from that premier cru show flesh and breed, with separate parcels, stainless steel, fine lees, and a refusal to let one site speak for all of them.

Weather left in the record

Françoise has spoken plainly about the limits weather sets on the work: “We had low harvests in 2011 and 2012 due to hail, fortunately they were still good quality. 2013 wasn’t great for morale given the bad weather throughout the year, but I think the wines are open, fresh and tasty.” That is the register of the domaine, measured rather than polished smooth. Camille Feuillat joined the domaine in July 2021 as an associate operator, carrying the family line into the next chapter at Domaine Feuillat-Juillot.