Bérêche & Fils Ludes 1er Cru Les Beaux Regards 2018
- Region
- France » Champagne » Champagne AOC » Montagne de Reims
- Type
- white traditional sparkling, extra brut
- Producer
- Vintage
- 2018
- Disgorged
- 2022-01
- On lees
- 36 months
- Grapes
- Chardonnay
- Alcohol
- 12.5
- Sugar
- 2
- Volume
- 750 mL
- Cellar
- not available
Surface: 0,45 ha
Age of the vines: 50 years
Altitude: 170 m - 10% gradient
Terroir: Chardonnay de Ludes 1er Cru, parcels «les Beaux Regards» and «les Clos», 2 parcels all close to the village at mid-side
Soil: Beautiful light clays, limestone and flint.
Blending: 100% Chardonnay
Vinification: Slow fermentation in barrels, ageing on lees, +36 months of cellaring on laths, foaming under cork.
— Bérêche & Fils
Ratings
This Chardonnay is truly remarkable. It's both profound and generous while maintaining a mineral and vinous character. The intriguing aromas of peanut butter, cheese popcorn, iodine, sweet spices, lemon candy, flowers, and tart make it irresistibly alluring. It presents itself with intensity and rounded length, offering a racy and delicious complexity. The balance is nearly perfect, requiring no effort to unravel its charms—it graciously offers itself up, ready to be savoured.
About Producer
Bérêche & Fils is one of those domaines that quietly reshaped how many of us think about Champagne (at least, it happens to me). Under the direction of brothers Raphaël and Vincent Bérêche - who officially took over in 2004 - it has transformed from a solid family-run house into one of the region's most respected grower-producers.
The domaine is based in Ludes, a Premier Cru village in the Montagne de Reims, but their vineyard holdings stretch across 14.8 hectares in the Montagne de Reims and Vallée de la Marne, with small but important parcels in the Grand Cru village of Cramant in the Côte des Blancs. Farming is thoughtful and labour-intensive. Old vines are cultivated by hand, with no herbicides or insecticides, and yields are kept deliberately low.
Vincent focuses on the vineyards, while Raphaël runs the cellar - where the approach is just as deliberate. Fermentations are slow, native, and largely carried out in barrels. Malolactic fermentation is typically blocked to preserve tension and acidity. One of the more distinctive touches: they use natural cork, not crown caps, for the second fermentation. This traditional method, rarely seen these days, allows a gentle, oxygen-rich ageing process in a bottle - resulting in subtler bubbles and a deeper, more layered texture. Everything is hand-disgorged, nothing is filtered, and the wines speak for themselves.
Bérêche isn't chasing trends or looking for glossy perfection. Their wines are textured, vinous, and unpolished in the best possible way. And while they've become cult favourites - spoken of in the same breath as Selosse, Agrapart, and Prévost - there's still a kind of humility and directness that sets them apart.