While the history of Bérêche goes as far back as 1847, it was only in 2004, when Vincent and Raphaël Bérêche began working with their father Jean-Pierre, that this producer flew onto our radar. Almost immediately, the brothers sought to grow on their father’s foundations, and set in motion some monumental changes in the vineyard and in the cellar, transforming style and quality, and starting an irresistible momentum that carries forward to this day.
Vincent and Raphaël work with a range of terroirs, mostly in the north of the region near Reims. The quality starts with thoughtful viticulture and low yields from a high percentage of old vines (many planted in the 1960s and 1970s). Upon their arrival, the brothers stopped all use of chemical herbicides and returned to labour-intensive manual cultivation of their vines.
In the cellar they employ long, natural fermentations and extended aging on lees. Parcels are vinified separately, and three-quarters of the production spends time in 350-litre barrels, while the reserve wines are held in demi-muids of 600 litres. Unusually, bottle aging is mostly under cork for the second fermentation (tirer à liege). The brothers believe this allows slightly more oxygen to get to the wine, resulting in Champagnes with finer bubbles and seamless texture. None of the wines go through malolactic fermentation. Bottling occurs without filtration and disgorgement is still done entirely by hand.
Combined with outstanding work in the vineyards, the brothers’ minimalist and precise cellar work and the resulting high quality has meant that Maison Bérêche has become one of the most revered Champagne houses among France’s sommeliers and cavistes—not to mention a source of some of the region’s most vinous and exciting wines. The top wines are stunning and comfortably stand up to, and in most cases blow away, the region’s best-known prestige cuvées.
