2001 marked the dawn of new era at the Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet. Over the centuries, the picturesque 17th century chateau has changed hands many times, and its celebrated vineyards have perpetually been the envy of its neighbors. In the 1950s, when poet and winegrower Roland Thevenin owned the estate, it became a gathering place for artists, clergy, and politicians alike. In the 1980s, the Thevenin family sold to the French bank group, Banque Populaire et Caisse d?Epargne, who renovated the property and tended to produce decent, albeit more commercially styled, wines. When the new Director of the Bank took over in 2001, he hired ?tienne de Montille of Volnay to put the Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet back on the map as one of the great producers of the C?te de Beaune . . . which is exactly what ?tienne did. He started the slow conversion of their 19 hectares of vineyards to biodynamic farming practices, a much more rigorous method than even organic farming, to bring more life to the soil, more vigor to the vine and more finesse to the wines. Nowhere have the benefits of his efforts been as evident as in 2003 when a heat-wave crippled Burgundy. Even in the midst of a drought, the plowing had saved the vines and helped them to retain water, giving balance to the wines in spite of the heat.
