History
    •    Maxime Cottenceau, born in 1996, comes from a winegrowing family in Buxy, south of Givry. For generations the family delivered its grapes to the Buxy cooperative.
    •    After a BTS in viticulture and oenology, he worked from 2015 with Vincent Dureuil at Domaine Dureuil-Janthial in Rully. Dureuil is his mentor, and their styles are often compared.
    •    In January 2018, his parents took part of their vines out of the cooperative to help him get started. Maxime is the first in the family to bottle wine under his own name.
    •    The winery was built in 2019, at the southern edge of Buxy on the road to Cluny, right among the Montagny vineyards.
    •    A hard start: the 2018 harvest was sold to négociants, frost halved the 2019 crop, drought hit 2020 and frost took about 90% of 2021.

The estate in figures
    •    About 6.2 ha today. The estate started with about 7.5 ha; Maxime sold small, distant plots (Aligoté, Mercurey, Crémant) in 2021 and in 2023 took over old Aligoté vines planted in 1946-1947.
    •    He does not plan to expand. His parents still farm about 22 ha on their own.
    •    Target yields: 40 to 45 hl/ha.

The cuvées
    •    Montagny 1er Cru: Les Vignes Longues, Vignes du Soleil, Montcuchot, Les Bassets, La Mouillière.
    •    Montagny village: Les Préaux, Les Dazés.
    •    Givry white Champ Pourot.
    •    Bourgogne white Les Verchères (vines from the 1960s, in Saint-Vallerin), Bourgogne Aligoté, Bourgogne red Les Chazelles (Pinot Noir).
    •    Montagny is the southernmost appellation of the Côte Chalonnaise: about 300 ha across four villages (Buxy, Montagny-lès-Buxy, Jully-lès-Buxy, Saint-Vallerin), Chardonnay only.

The terroirs
    •    Les Vignes Longues: the northern edge of Montagny, at the top of an east-facing slope at almost 300 m, on 60% clay and 40% limestone.
    •    Montcuchot: a steep, stony west-facing slope with barely 30 cm of soil over the rock, rich in limestone fossils. Afternoon shade limits heat stress.
    •    Vignes du Soleil: bottom of a south/south-east slope, on very dark clay.
    •    La Mouillière: Montagny’s southernmost premier cru, facing south, on coloured marls.
    •    Les Préaux (deeper, darker clay) and Les Dazés (lighter clay and more rock, with a more exotic character).

The signature
    •    Very precise Montagny with depth, concentration and charm, far from the image of a "minor" appellation.
    •    A style close to Vincent Dureuil’s: tension, substance and well-integrated oak.

In the vineyard
    •    Organic farming, with no herbicides or chemicals. Work follows the lunar calendar.
    •    Trials of braiding the shoots instead of trimming them.
    •    Hand harvesting in small crates, with sorting in the vineyard and again in the cellar.

In the cellar
    •    Every cuvée is made the same way: the differences come from the terroir.
    •    Gentle pressing, no settling of the juice, indigenous yeasts, fermentation in French oak barrels.
    •    About 30% new oak, lees stirring once a month.
    •    About 20 months of ageing: one year in barrel, then about eight months in stainless steel.
    •    Very little sulphur, light filtration, bottling by gravity.

Reputation
    •    Praised by William Kelley (Wine Advocate), La Revue du Vin de France and the wine lovers of La Passion du Vin, with scores around 92/100.
    •    Imported into the United States by Skurnik and North Berkeley, and into the UK by Lea & Sandeman.