PINOT GRIS Rose BERU 2018 – ORANGE/ROSE WINE 2018

PINOT GRIS Rose BERU 2018 – ORANGE/ROSE WINE, natural production, wow factor style , flavour and unique provenance, a true labour of love for a dedicated and very talented wine maker. This Pinot Gris made from fruit sourced from the northern most part of the Chablis district near Auxerre is truly a magnificent example of skin contact wine production. The colour is wild and vibrant, almost deep Rose but with that slightly hazy hue that no filtration and skin contact gives you. The nose is superb floral, yeasty, fruity, some pink grapefruit and then quince, and some stone fruits, the texture is beautiful; and the length of finish, satisfyingly long with tons of freshness. A wine that tasted blind could be a Radikon but which has something of Athenais’s feminine touch. 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. This wine continues the Legacy of the tricky 2016 vintage when she had no grapes for Chablis and so scavenged fruit fro other natural growers to make a few bottles. Not all continued in the following vintages but this one did and we delighted about that.

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!