Montgueux

Montgueux is a single commune and a single hill, around ten kilometers west of Troyes, in the Aube. The hill rises to 269 meters, about a hundred meters above the plain of Troyes, and the vineyards offer views of the city. It is made of limestone and chalk around 90 million years old, with pockets of red clay and plenty of flint; water is scarce, and the village wells reach depths of 30–50 meters. Its south-facing slopes and limestone subsoil led the INAO to classify around 200 hectares under the Champagne appellation.

UMC figures count 208 hectares and 90 winegrowers: Chardonnay 90%, Pinot Noir 9%, Meunier less than 1%. Like the Vitryat, Montgueux is not on the Côte d'Île-de-France but on the Côte de Champagne, the cuesta that the appellation regulations associate with the Vitryat in the Marne and, in the Aube, with Montgueux; the Union des Maisons de Champagne nevertheless lists it among the terroirs of an expanded Côte des Blancs, along with the Côte de Sézanne, the Val du Petit Morin and the Vitryat, even though it lies much farther south, closer to the Côte des Bar. It is neither Grand Cru nor Premier Cru.

The name is thought to come from Mons Gothorum, the mountain of the Goths, a reminder of a Germanic settlement from Roman times; in the 12th–13th centuries, a family of knights lived there, and in the 16th century the village passed to Nicolas Riglet, mayor of Troyes, who was buried in the church. Today, around twenty winegrowers produce their own Champagne, while the others sell their grapes; a few more plots could be added to the production area.

At STELT, we don't currently have wines from Montgueux; for the Aube, the page to visit is Côte des Bar.