Ever wondered about the origins of the names of the five Montrachet Grand Cru plots (pronounced ‘Mon-rash-ay’), where Chardonnay produces some of its finest expressions in the Côte de Beaune? Chevalier, Bâtard, Criots-Bâtard and Bienvenues-Bâtard – these names all stem from a rather humorous story…

Demystifying the legendary names of the Montrachet Grands Crus

History (or legend?) has it that, in the absence of his son who had left for the Holy Land during the Crusades, the Lord of Montrachet (the name of the hill) whiled away the hours by visiting local young girls at the ‘Clos des Pucelles’ (the name of a Puligny-Montrachet premier cru). In French, pucelles refers to young, unmarried women or virgins, giving the name a somewhat romantic or even chaste connotation… One of these encounters led to the birth of a child a few months later.

His eldest son was then nicknamed Chevalier Montrachet, while the youngest was called Bâtard Montrachet. Bâtard means bastard in French, referring to a child born out of wedlock, a term which perhaps conveyed slightly humorous undertones at the time. When his first-born died in the Holy Land, the lord was forced to appoint his illegitimate son as his successor, greeted by a chorus of ‘Bienvenue au bâtard Montrachet‘ (Welcome to the Montrachet bastard!). To add to the story, rumour has it that when his infant son cried, the lord would regularly exclaim, in the Burgundian dialect, ‘a crio l’Bâtard’), which translates to ‘he’s crying, the bastard!’, giving the name to the grand cru Criots-Bâtard.

It is in memory of its illustrious occupant’s antics, after the Château’s demolition, that the vines were given the names that have come to epitomise the quintessence of Burgundy’s finest white wines. This story comes from the Encyclopédie des Vins de France, published by EDITA, where readers will find a wealth of anecdotes and quotations about France’s greatest appellations. If your French is up for the challenge, we highly recommend reading it.

How did the Puligny-Montrachet village name come to be?

The name Puligny dates back to the Gallo-Roman era, when a man named Puliniacus founded his estate around 2,000 years ago. The wines produced on this terroir were already renowned in the Middle Ages and are now considered some of the finest dry white wines in the world.

This is because the Bathonian limestone in the appellation’s soil imparts a unique subtlety to the Chardonnay grapes. A quality further enhanced by the south-east exposure and slopes that facilitate drainage. The Puligny-Montrachet white wines offer an array of noble, elegant aromas including marzipan, fern, tropical fruit, amber and white flowers. On the palate, their discrete acidity allows them to express an intense mellowness and impressive persistence.

By the end of the 19th century, Burgundy villages were given permission to add the name of the most prestigious parcel to their own. This is how ‘Montrachet’, which stretches between Chassagne and Puligny, joined the names of these two villages, just as Musigny was added to Chambolle, Corton to Aloxe…

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