The wine and the women of Clos Beru
We recently had Athenias Beru in the shop for a tasting of her sensational Chablis. Together with her mother, she runs our favourite Domaine in this stellular but often deeply disappointing region. By Kate.
Change always comes more slowly to iconic regions. Who needs to try something different in Chablis? It is not as if the wines aren’t world famous and highly sought after. Come it must though, eventually, and we are delighted to be stocking a wine which is not only utterly sensational Chablis but which is at the forefront of the revolution, made by a very charming young lady who popped in for a quick tasting at the shop this afternoon.
Poor health forced him to stop in the mid 1990’s, when she was still too young to take over and so the vines were leased out to near neighbours. Despite her happy wine making memories, she rather inexplicably chose to study Finance inParis
Five years ago, she went home and set about reclaiming and then reviving the family’s 13 hectares of vineyards with a view to making her own wines. This meant first converting all of them to organic viticulture, a decision which many of her neighbours still regard as completely insane. Chablis is cool and often damp and so is plagued by both odium and mildew, a situation that generations have solved through whole sale chemical use. Not brave Athenias!
And she is no longer alone. There are now, she believes, about 3 or 4 others working organically or biodynamically in Chablis, tiny drops in oceans of chemically manipulated wine, but change is taking root, particularly as the younger generation of winemakers begin to take over.
She says that from the beginning, she ‘couldn’t imagine making wine with another philosophy’. She is very careful about what she buys to eat and is generally passionately interested in environmental issues, so why wouldn’t she? It has not been, despite the neighbours sombre predictions, a disaster but she admits that it is definitely more complicated and harder work.
Nature, she observed, always does things better than people can, so it is better to observe than to try to intervene.
“You have to learn nature” she says. “This is not easy”.
All the wines we tasted with her today were the first vintage she has made which really was quite astonishing given the quality. If this is what she has achieved after a relative blink of the eye (in wine making terms), imagine what they will be like in 10, 15 or 20 years? We started with her basic Chablis
2007 Chateau de Beru Chablis – 45 – 50 hl/hectare yields.
From a vineyard on the hill of Beru, the tiny town dominated by her family’s Chateau. Athenias very much wants the differences in soil types to come through in the wines and here, there are great lumps of calcerous rock. 2007 was a typical year in that the wines have very good acidity but it wasn’t easy. Devastating hailstorms ruined a lot of fruit and resulted in extra intensity in the bunches that managed to hold on.
This is fermented and aged in stainless steel – no wood and no extended contact with dead yeast. She wants nothing to impede the purity of fruit and mineral.
2006 Vacoupin 1er Cru – 35 – 45 hl/hectare yields
Vacoupin is an east facing vineyard, so it is cooler than many, giving a more elegant, austere style. It still needs time despite the fact that 2006 was a rich vintage, with much more sun than usual.
Lovely cold stone and smoke on the nose. Very fresh but balanced acidity with viscous lemon weight underpinned by stones and smoke. Excellent stony development and good mineral length and finish.
A mere 1,500 bottles of this were produced.
2005 Clos Beru – 35 to 45 hl/hc - £24 retail
Finally, to the wine we have loved and stocked for over a year now. We return to it often and are always profoundly impressed by how excellent it is. Unbelievably, this was her very first vintage at home. It hails from a very interesting vineyard, one surrounded by a wall dating from the 13th century which is also part of the foundations of their house. It is completely isolated and faces south on a hill, ticking all the boxes for an exceptional vineyard in Burgundy
She says that while 2005 was the beginning of her story with this vineyard she could already feel the energy of the soil. Again very big rocks giving lots of minerality and a kind of smokiness. As a great omen for the future, 2005 was a very good vintage.
Poor health forced him to stop in the mid 1990’s, when she was still too young to take over and so the vines were leased out to near neighbours. Despite her happy wine making memories, she rather inexplicably chose to study Finance in
Five years ago, she went home and set about reclaiming and then reviving the family’s 13 hectares of vineyards with a view to making her own wines. This meant first converting all of them to organic viticulture, a decision which many of her neighbours still regard as completely insane. Chablis is cool and often damp and so is plagued by both odium and mildew, a situation that generations have solved through whole sale chemical use. Not brave Athenias!
And she is no longer alone. There are now, she believes, about 3 or 4 others working organically or biodynamically in Chablis, tiny drops in oceans of chemically manipulated wine, but change is taking root, particularly as the younger generation of winemakers begin to take over.
She says that from the beginning, she ‘couldn’t imagine making wine with another philosophy’. She is very careful about what she buys to eat and is generally passionately interested in environmental issues, so why wouldn’t she? It has not been, despite the neighbours sombre predictions, a disaster but she admits that it is definitely more complicated and harder work.
Nature, she observed, always does things better than people can, so it is better to observe than to try to intervene.
“You have to learn nature” she says. “This is not easy”.
All the wines we tasted with her today were the first vintage she has made which really was quite astonishing given the quality. If this is what she has achieved after a relative blink of the eye (in wine making terms), imagine what they will be like in 10, 15 or 20 years?
2007 Chateau de Beru Chablis – 45 – 50 hl/hectare yields.
From a vineyard on the hill of Beru, the tiny town dominated by her family’s Chateau. Athenias very much wants the differences in soil types to come through in the wines and here, there are great lumps of calcerous rock.
This is fermented and aged in stainless steel – no wood and no extended contact with dead yeast. She wants nothing to impede the purity of fruit and mineral.
2006 Vacoupin 1er Cru – 35 – 45 hl/hectare yields
Vacoupin is an east facing vineyard, so it is cooler than many, giving a more elegant, austere style. It still needs time despite the fact that 2006 was a rich vintage, with much more sun than usual.
Lovely cold stone and smoke on the nose. Very fresh but balanced acidity with viscous lemon weight underpinned by stones and smoke. Excellent stony development and good mineral length and finish.
A mere 1,500 bottles of this were produced.
2005 Clos Beru – 35 to 45 hl/hc - £24 retail
Finally, to the wine we have loved and stocked for over a year now. We return to it often and are always profoundly impressed by how excellent it is. Unbelievably, this was her very first vintage at home.
She says that while 2005 was the beginning of her story with this vineyard she could already feel the energy of the soil. Again very big rocks giving lots of minerality and a kind of smokiness. As a great omen for the future, 2005 was a very good vintage.
