Athénaïs de Béru

A castle in the vineyards

In Béru, at the end of the Grande Rue, is the eponymous château, where Athénaïs lives, representative of a family line that goes back more than 400 years. Vines have always been grown on the surrounding hills in this small village, just a few kilometres from Chablis.

For centuries, vines have been grown in the vineyards surrounding the Château, and wine has evolved quietly in its magnificent vaulted cellars. In 1987, Athénaïs' father, Count Eric de Béru, took the ambitious and courageous decision to replant the estate, which had been left fallow by his grandparents following the ravages of phylloxera almost a hundred years earlier.

First entrusted to a neighbouring winegrower, it was in the middle of the year 2000 that Athénaïs de Béru decided to leave her Parisian life behind and return to the village of her childhood, where she dedicated herself to winegrowing, gradually taking over the family estate of some 15 hectares.

Convinced, but above all thrilled by the wines tasted year after year, Athénaïs set about converting the entire estate to organic farming, then to biodynamic farming a few years later. Her first vintage, 2006, was already a harbinger of the road ahead.

Under the family labels, with Chardonnay, she made a wine exploring all the facets of the village's vines, Terroirs de Béru, then parcel-based, expressive cuvées, Orangerie, Montserre, Côte aux Prêtres, and the iconic Monopole, Clos Béru. Recently, certain cuvées have also been bottled without the addition of sulphur, offering even more intense and profound wines. Vintage after vintage, more daring cuvées have been created, sometimes vinified in amphorae, sometimes macerated or experimenting with new grape varieties and unusual blends.

Today, Athénaïs, supported by her partner Antoine, has the destiny of the Château in her hands more than ever, and who knows if one day one of their two daughters will follow in her sublime footsteps...