Beru - Athenais Aligote Bourgogne 2020

The Béru family have owned the historical Château de Béru domain for 400 years. At the beginning of the 20th century when the phylloxera crisis hit all the vines were uprooted leaving the estate without its source of income. It was only in 1987, that the Comte Éric de Béru, out of passion for wine, undertook to replant the entire vineyard, and in particular, the famous monopole vineyard Clos Béru. His wife, Laurence and their daughter Athénaïs are now running the domain. Athénaïs was living in Paris until 2004 when her father passed away, and she decided to move back to Béru to reclaim the vineyard, which included the painstaking task of converting it to organic, and then biodynamic (now demeter certified). Her first vintage was 2005 and in the years that have followed she has become one of the most revered and influential winemakers in Chablis.

She manages almost 15 hectares on the classic soils of Chablis, kimmeridgian clay and stones, as well as having a small negociant allowing her to play with varieties outside of burgundy during challenging vintages (2017,2018,2019). The Chablis of the domain is produced in a vineyard located on the top of the hill of Béru, above 300 meters. Its terroir was formed during the Kimmeridgian era and is mainly composed of crushed limestone and marine fossils. The vines are approximately 30 years old. The pruning system is guyot double shape and approximately 6500 vines are planted per hectare.

Grapes are handpicked at maturity in 10kg crates. The harvest is directly pressed – in a pneumatic press at low pressure. The juice is directly transferred to stainless steel tanks for fermentations. All wines are aged for 14 to 16 months and are bottled without any fining or filtration. The close attention brought at each step of the winemaking process is the key element, which allows for low sulphur vinification or in the case of the single site wines no addition at all.