New Releases from Raphaël Bérèche.

9/9/13 -

There’s a mountain in the middle of Champagne between Epernay to the south and Reims to the north. Scaling it in a snow storm in a miniature rental car on the way to the Bérèche winery is an excellent way to observe the frozen landscape that gives us these steely and focused Champagnes, and also a petrifying experience. Such a journey is amply rewarded once the intrepid taster reaches the winery, where a warm and smiling Raphaël Bérèche pours tastes of some of the most exciting grower Champagnes on the market.

We characterize these Champagnes as polished and suave, dry, yet full and concentrated, with abundant mineral depth. Raphaël Bérèche began to convert the vineyards to organic viticulture in the early 2000s when he took over from his father. He also launched an ambitious project to improve techniques in the winery. Now the majority of the base wines are raised in barrels, and second fermentations for all but the Brut and Extra Brut Reserve take place under cork rather than capsule. Cork aging, a more costly and riskier process than capsule aging, allows very slow, controlled oxidation that gives the wines roundness and fine mousse. In short, no expense is spared in the creation of these beautiful wines.

Among the slew of new releases is 2006 Le Cran (the best Le Cran to date) as well as 2009 Rive Gauche and Beaux Regards. The warm 2009 vintage in Champagne may have suffered ever-so-slightly in reputation following 2008, which received high accolades, but we truly feel that Bérèche’s wines are better each time we taste them, as the vineyards continue to benefit from organic viticulture and Raphaël hones his skills in the cellar; we highly doubt that lovers of the mouth-coating minerality and high acidity of Bérèche's 2008s will want mineral and acid in 2009. It’s no exaggeration to say that Raphaël's star is on the rise and that these are wines to snap up for present day as well as future drinking. Santé! -Sophie