Château Montus & Château Bouscassé – world-class wines from South-West France

When Star Wine List celebrated the best wine lists in Asia and the teams behind them in Hong Kong, Château Montus & Château Bouscassé – South-West France's leading wine producer – joined to present the Best By the Glass category.

(Partner story with Château Montus & Château Bouscassé)

"It is crucial for us to support sommeliers because they are our first ambassadors to the customers, they will recommend our wines for the best pairing. Gastronomy is part of our DNA, South West of France is one the richest French regions for gastronomic products with our AOC Porc Noir de Bigorre, Pourle Noire d'Astarc Bigorre, Haricots Tarbais, Caviar, Truffles, lamb and cheeses from Pyrenees. Wines are like flavour enhancers when you find the perfect food and wine pairing!" said Alain Brumont, owner and winemaker, about the domain joining the celebration.

He continued:

"We were happy to be a part of this event with Star Wine list for the first time. We wanted to show and make people taste our wines because our region is still quite unknown in some countries. Sommeliers and other people from the industry are the best persons to present the wines to, to develop the region's image – and our wines from Châteaux Montus and Château Bouscassé too, of course!"

Alain Brumont's journey in wine started In 1979 when he inherited his father's 17-hectare vineyard Château Bouscassé in Madiran. Just one year later, in 1980, he bought Château Montus. From the start, he decided to focus on exploring – and showing – the potential of the regional Tannat grape.

Biodiversity is key for Brumont, and with no industry or city of any size to pollute the air or water for 100 kilometres around, the vines benefit from an ideal environment.

In 1991 Alain Brumont was rewarded with the title of Best French Wine Grower of the 1980's by French magazine "Gault-Millau", and several international magazines have over the years ranked him as one of the world's top winemakers.

What defines a great wine list in your opinion? "Four main things: A selection of talented winemakers with their names on the label. Highlighting price/pleasure ratios. Balancing the number of references from different wine-growing regions. Discovery of new or little-known grape varieties."

Looking forward – what is happening with Brumont this year? "For a few years now, the family relay has been in motion with Antoine, my stepson, who has been working with me in the vineyards for 20 years. He came back full-time with us after some training around the world and he brings his 'touch' alongside mine on the wine profiles, to bring more elegance and accessibility in the recent vintages. Softer extraction, and longer ageing in wooden casks. Every 20 years, we bring new talents to the team and today, we are building a young team with people from different backgrounds."

And what are the plans for the future? "I did the last 40 years, and now we work together with Antoine to prepare the next 40 years with the motto 'Even Further, Even Higher'. I've always worked to look in advance and anticipate what is coming, in order not to suffer from a surprising situation."

"We continue to work hard in this direction in the vineyards, with new plots with fresher exposure to fight against global warming. We are planting trees in the vineyards to work as solar shades to limit the high temperatures in the soils, protect the soils, and favour the wines with no inputs – which is possible with Tannat since it is a well-balanced grape with rich natural acidity."

"We also make a lot of tests every year, both in the vineyards and in the cellar, to always increase the quality in every bottle. Experimenting is part of our daily work."