The name Montauriol comes from "Mons Aureolus", Latin for Golden
Mountain. The property belonged originally to the Knights of Saint Jean
de Jérusalem and to the abbey of Moissac at which time its wines
travelled in the Crusades. Enjoyed by Pope Calixte II, Richelieu and King
Louis XIII who camped there during the siege of Montauban, the estate
passed to the Compte d’Espié, a noble inhabitant of Toulouse.
Later acquired at a court sale on August 13th 1789 by a lawyer of the
Toulousian Parliament, M. Saint-Plancat, Montauriol belonged to the same
family for seven generations. Nicolas Gelis bought the property in 1998.
He has 35 hectares of vines here, the lion's share of which are Négrette,
a local variety rarely seen elsewhere (some Syrah and Cabernet Franc too).
Sustainable viticulture is practised along with more commonplace practices
for quality wines such as green harvesting. He has updated the estate
with some modern practices and now is among the vanguard of wine production
in the South West of France.
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