BEAUJOLAIS DECI DELA ATHENAIS DE BERU 2016

BEAUJOLAIS DECI DELA ATHENAIS DE BERU 2016, natural wine, organic fruit sourced from top producer in Beaujolais, made in the cellar at Chateau de Beru. We love Gamay here, it is such an amazing red grape, able to give superb red fruit and floral aromas along with superb acid balance and tension. It is a grape which seems to love natural production methods, wild yeasts and low sulphites. It becomes a little funky but not scary, light and fresh but without being wishy-washy. Athenais’ Gamay is an absolute belter, texture ofa top burgundy, it coats the mouth and oozes ripe red fruits. At only 11% abv, it is a top quality summer lunch wine sat outside and enjoying some cheeses, charcuterie and salads. From a personal standpoint, the wines at the Chateau de Beru by this creative and dynamic wine maker are some of my favourite in the world and her efforts in 2016 have been rewarded with another range of delicious and hedonistic bottles.

2016 was a very frustrating year for many wine producers including Athenais de Beru from Chablis. Within a single dark cold night in April, she lost the entire 2016 vintage from an unforgivable frost. Frost is common in Burgundy, especially in Chablis, but this time it was the worst they had ever seen! However, bubbly and stubborn Athenais always has the last say and the frost was not going to stop her from making wine! She jumped into her old car and hit the road towards the warmth of the South of France in search of hopes, new energies and above all healthy grapes from her friends the wine producers. As she gets further South, she comes across Domaine Milan’s healthy vines and beautiful grapes, among some other wine producers and becomes obsessed with them, she wants to make her own wine from this magnificent fruit. Henri kindly sells her superb Grenache from the Vallon vineyard, Carolin and Nikolaus from Enfants Sauvages in Fitou supply her with some amazing Carignan and Syrah and some good friends in Beaujolais let her have a few bunches of prize Gamay. She loads the harvests one by one into a refrigerated van to safely transport them back to Chablis. She is happy to have some fruit and determined to bring back these beautiful sunny grapes to her cellar to produce a unique 2016 vintage called “Deci Dela” (meaning from here and there). This vintage is born out of the solidarity between the natural wine producing community and Athenais’s fantastic wine making skills! Every bottle of wine will whisper a generous message of hope, energy and triumph in the face of adversity! Enjoy! We’re down to the last few bottles, so get them while you can!

Chateau de Beru is a 400 year old domaine hosting some of the best terroir in Chablis.

It is a magnificent estate, full of grandeur and history. The ornate rooms are filled with paintings and furniture that date back centuries. Staying there is like stepping back in time to pre-revolutionary France with 4 poster beds and stunning views across the walled vineyards and hills of Burgundy. For centuries the potential of the beautiful 17th century estate went unrealised until in the 1980s Count Eric de Beru, fuelled by his passion for wine replanted the vines including the unique walled vineyard, Clos Beru! When he became ill the vineyards were rented and the grapes sold to the cooperative until in 2004 his daughter Athenais took over and revolutionised the estate, finally realising its great potential. After a visit to Argentina and an encounter with coffee farmers using biodynamics to produce their beans, she returned home and despite some resistance convinced her parents that the future of their wine lay in biodynamic production. Athenais has been working the 15 hectares of vines with biodynamic methods since 2008 and since then the quality and purity of the wines has soared. She is blessed with fabulous Chablis terroir, calcareous-clay soils of the Kimmeridgien era (notably with deposits of fossilised oysters dating back 150 million years ago) at 300 metres above sea level. Only using natural methods including horse rather than tractors, can this hallowed ground be protected and maintained. The wines are pure and alive and marry intensity with immense finesse. Athénaïs has also joined the 'Femmes et Vins de Bourgogne' (Women and Wines of Burgundy) an association set up to enable talented female wine makers - who are unfortunately still scarce in Burgundy - to share their experience and passion. Recently she has started to ferment a very small amount of fruit with the skins in Amphorae to make tiny quantities of orange wines, watch this space, we will get some, although not much!