The winery was founded in 1987 by the visionary quartet Aurelio, Douglas Murray, Alfredo Vidaurre and Pedro Grand. Aurelio explains, “Our philosophy was simple - to produce excellent quality wines at a level which didn’t exist in Chile at the time.”

Aurelio Montes is widely credited with pioneering Chile’s quality revolution. His ability to identify potential in previously unknown sites, has led to the creation of appellations which now produce some of Chile’s finest wines. The Colchagua Valley is a perfect example of this. Aurelio first came to the area in his 20s and became fascinated by the then-barren landscape of Apalta, where Montes are based today. Apalta translates to ‘poor soils’, referencing the area's alluvial soils comprised predominantly of sandy loam and clay, as well as granite on the steep hillsides. Though a difficult environment for traditional agriculture, Aurelio sensed its potential for high-quality grape growing. Starting in these vineyards, he applied a rigorous, quality-focused approach to farming, resulting in low yields and perfectly ripe fruit. Their long-standing dedication to sustainability has resulted in them becoming B-Corp certified in 2024.

The vineyards are planted on gently rolling hills in the areas of Zapallar, Casablanca, Leyda and Santa Domingo and are trained in a vertical shoot position. The sites are irrigated via a 'Sustainable Dry Farmed' system, developed by Aurelio and his team, which allows for extremely precise and minimal irrigating, reducing Montes' water footprint by 65%. The proximity of the vineyards to the Pacific coast endows the wine with tremendous freshness, minerality, and cool climate typicity. The granitic soils of the Coastal Mountains have varying percentages of clay, which contributes elegance, creaminess and a unique sense of place.

The grapes were hand-picked in the early morning into 10 kg trays to preserve freshness, then carefully sorted both before and after destemming. Multiple maceration and fermentation approaches were employed, including carbonic maceration, traditional fermentation, and ferments with whole clusters, semi-destemmed and fully destemmed grapes. All of these methods were conducted at low temperatures to retain Pinot Noir’s delicate fruit profile. Maceration and fermentation lasted around seven days with two gentle punch-downs per day. After draining, the wine was transferred to barrels or stainless-steel tanks to complete malolactic fermentation. 40% of the blend was aged in 225-litre French oak barrels—one-third new and the remainder second and third use—for a minimum of ten months before being combined with the unoaked portion. The final wine was bottled following a gentle filtration.

Great with pesto pasta, mild, creamy soups (mushroom, chicken), veal, Camembert cheese, mushroom risotto, rocket and herb salad, bruschetta.