Born in the land of Armagnac, our red, white and rosé wines know how to surprise and redefine the canons of Côtes de Gascogne.
Anecdotes about the domain
We are the first winery in the Gers region to have adopted Genodics' experimental proteodyne technology, musical waves that promote the natural constitution of the proteins needed by the vine to grow more resistant.
The domain's short story
In Gascony, there are glorious figures who marked their time and posterity. Patrick de Montal and Victoire de Montesquiou, owners of the Arton estate, are among them. A woman of the world, a journalist for the ORTF and a writer, Victoire is a mythical figure of the Paris of the Pompidou years, where she rubbed shoulders with those who made France, from Malraux to d'Ormesson. As for Patrick, he has been the incarnation of the Armagnac revival for 30 years. After some twenty years in Paris, they returned together to their native land, the Haut-Armagnac. Both Patrick and Victoire grew up in the Gers, connected by this land to their illustrious ancestors. This return to their roots consecrates their love and signs a new beginning, that of a "de-cluttered life" which touches the essential: the vine, the wine and the Armagnac. Arton is a land of history and wine, as the hundred-year-old barrels discovered in the old wine storehouse and the Roman shields found during the clearing of the "Deux Cèdres" parcel attest. Indeed, the vine has long made the reputation of the country. To become a winegrower at the age of 40? A dream. A madness. It will be a reality. A man of the soil and a visionary winemaker, Patrick de Montal embodies a new frontier in the sleepy and trusted world of Armagnac. In 1985 he created Fine Blanche®, a perfectly natural Armagnac brandy, and launched a whole new category known today as AOC Blanche d'Armagnac. Upon discovering the aromatic power of this "Armagnac in its prime", bottled without having aged in wood, he was seized with a certainty: he had to plant his vines to raise his wines and explore the aromatic potential of his Haut-Armagnac terroir, because the quality of the wine that goes into the still determines the quality of the brandy that comes out, and the imprint of the year is decisive. The first vines were planted in 1991, resurrecting the viticultural vocation of Haut-Armagnac which had disappeared with the phylloxera crisis at the end of the 19th century. By settling in Arton, he defied the prejudices that made this land unsuitable for vineyards, a thumbing of the nose at prejudices that proved him right. In 2017, his Armagnacs received the Prix d'Excellence at the Concours Général Agricole de Paris, a first for an Armagnac! 40 years after Patrick and Victoire, it is the turn of their son Jean and his wife Lili to embody this new face of Armagnac. After a professional career that took them to the four corners of the world, they settled in Arton to continue the family adventure. Jean de Montal, a native of the region, returned to the domain with an ecological project in mind: to deepen his father's environmental commitments in order to convert the entire vineyard to biodynamic farming and to pass on a healthy land to his children. As for Lili Chieng de Montal, a Parisian of Chinese origin, she has long been converted to the art of living at Arton and intends to initiate those with a passion for taste to the aesthetics of Arton. With the same passion as Patrick and Victoire, Jean and Lili de Montal are also ahead of the Armagnac world.
The winemaker's pride
At the top of the Haut-Armagnac, in the northern part of the region, on the plateau of Lectoure, the Domaine d'Arton benefits from a magnificent setting, bathed by the sun and the East winds. Naturally irrigated by pure springs, the rich and fertile clay-limestone soils give birth to the vines that make the richness and complexity of the wines, luminous and mineral. It is on this land of the Haut-Armagnac that the Montal family plants its vines to raise its wines and Armagnacs, making the traceability "from the vine to the glass" the secret of its excellence. The 88 hectare estate, spread over 19 parcels, has a rare grape variety, with 8 varieties of grapes that give the wines their typical character: Ugni Blanc, Colombard, Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng, Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet. Nothing is left to chance. Each grape variety is planted on the plot that suits it best and is monitored according to its specificities.
Pictures of the domain
