Chablis Montserre Chateau Beru 2018

Chablis Montserre Chateau Beru Natural Wine from Chablis, very little added sulphur, stunning purity, Chablis and Chardonnay, un-masked, beautiful natural wine. This single vineyard Chablis comes from the highest point in the hill of Béru, the ‘Serres’ being localised geological layers made from fossilized lime. The terroir has a profound impact on the style of wine and Montserre has a different personality to Cotes aux Pretes, the other single vineyard wine in the Beru cohort. Montserre 2018 was a full and gentle vintage, the wines are drinking beautifully now and showing depth and complexity. These wines are truly stunning and although the price of Chablis seems to be heading back towards the super premium end of the wine world (in truth where it should be), these wines are worth every penny.

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!