Château de Béru, Athenaïs Bourgogne Aligoté 2021

Location: France, Burgundy, Chablis

Winemaker: Athénaïs de Béru

Grapes: Aligoté

Soil: Limestone

Winemaking: Hand picked, native yeast fermentation. Aligoté comes from plots in St. Bris, east and southwest facing. Long slow press, cold settled, fermentation in oak barrel. Aged 12-18 months in old oak. No fining and no filtering. 

From the Importer Zev Rovine: The Béru family has owned the historical Château de Béru domain for 400 years. Until the phylloxera crisis, when all the vines were uprooted, at the beginning of the 20th century, the domain used to rely solely on the wine for its revenues. 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 Clos Béru.

His wife Laurence and their daughter Athénaïs are now running the domain. They have invested considerable means to improve the production quality and give a fresh start to the domain. These tremendous efforts and the choice to adopt organic farming are beginning to bear fruits, and are noticeable in the vintages that have been vinified by Athénais and her team since 2004.

The Chablis covers a wide area and offers very contrasted types of terroirs. In the particular case of the Château de Béru, the domain’s parcels cover a total of 8 hectares. They all are located in the Béru area and give wines that express the mineral and iodised notes typical of the village wines.

The vines are 30 years old. They are conducted in guyot double shoot, the density of plantation is 6500 feet per hectare.

Considerable improvements have been made since 2006, noticeably in the organic prevention of diseases, in the trellising, biodynamic practices, and in the soil work.