Located in Condrieu, high up on a gorgeous west-facing slope overlooking the Rhône River, this superb estate is managed by the young and charismatic Stéphane Montez. On these hills, Stéphane’s Viognier flourishes in the Chaillées terraces, dry stone walls that were built by the Romans 2000 years ago. The area of terraces is located on the eastern outskirts of Mount Pilat (1434 m) which offers a protective climate and gentle breezes as well as magmatic plutonic rocks (granite) and metamorphic rocks (schist, gneiss and migmatites). Montez’s Côte-Rotie was the subject of a feature article in the December 2014 issue of The Wine Advocate. His wines are also highly priased in Revue du Vin de France. In Côte Rôtie, he owns 2.6 hectares of vines in the lieux-dits of Le Combard, Bons-Arrêts and Les Bercheries (mostly granite soils and all located in the southern end of the appellation), as well as a tiny half-hectare of old vines in Les Grandes Places, which is all micro-schist soils and located in the northern part of the appellation.