The winery is located in the commune of Maumusson in the Madiran area of south-west France. The owner Alain Brumont (born 1946) is largely responsible for the leap in quality in this area. In 1979, he took over the Château Bouscassé estate from his father and acquired Château Montus two years later. When the INAO limited the proportion of Tannat in favour of other varieties, the winegrowers under Brumont's leadership fought against it. Brumont planted four fifths of his vineyards with Tannat. He made numerous trips for inspiration and experimented with the lowest yields, long maceration, frequent racking and long barrel ageing. Vine rows are oriented to grow "towards 15:00" for optimal exposure with up to 15 hours of sunlight daily. Many vines are pruned five to seven times a year to maintain a regular cluster of grapes.
In 1985, Brumont released the first single-varietal Tannat red wine of Bordeaux format, named "Pétrus des Madiran" in reference to the famous Château P étrus. In 1990, Brumont acquired the ancient vineyard "La Tyre", the first vintage of which was 2000. In 1995, a new winery was put into operation at Château Montus. Today, the vineyards cover almost 600 hectares (half of which are owned by Brumont), 350 of which are in Madiran and 220 in Gascogne.
The two Madiran top red wines are made from the Tannat variety with smaller portions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc with long, five-week fermentation and aged for 16 months in new barrique barrels. The "Château Montus" comes from vineyards with gravel soils in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées. Château Bouscassé" grows on clayey limestone soils with vines that are over 50 years old in the department of Gers. From the highest sites, the flagship "Montus la Tyre" is produced from pure Tannat grapes. Some vintages, such as 1994 and 2000, are matured in barriques for more than five years. The second wines are called "Domaine Meinjarre" and "Torus". Both areas also produce dry and sweet white wines under AOC Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh. IGP wines (country wines) are also produced.
Image: By Château Montus - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
