It’s been almost 10 years since we first met Vincent and Raphaël Bérêche. The memory sticks in the mind, not only for the striking quality of the wines we tasted. It was one of the few times we had arrived early for an appointment, and both the brothers were out in the vineyards dealing with the consequences of the grisly late-spring weather. After 15 minutes, Raphaël Bérêche rocked up in his tractor, hands covered in dirt and humbly apologetic for his workman-like appearance. Sometimes, you just feel it in your bones; we knew instantly that this was our kind of grower.

Among the producers in our portfolio, Bérêche lies closest to Egly-Ouriet in the Montagne de Reims. The core of its 11 hectares falls in the 1er Cru village of Ludes, a pretty town with excellent soils sheltered by the dense woods of the Montagne. Ludes is sandwiched between Rilly-la-Montagne and Chigny-les-Roses to the west and the Grand Cru of Mailly-Champagne to the east. Bérêche owns small sites in all three of these villages, as well as a parcel of old vines in Trépail. Still in the Montagne, there’s a soupçon of Ambonnay, while in Vallée de la Marne, they work in Aÿ and Mareuil-le-Port, which specialises in Meunier. Together, they farm 20 parcels, and their holdings are complemented by almost academic volumes of fruit purchased from Cramant and Avize in the Côte des Blancs.

The domaine’s history goes as far back as 1847, but it wasn’t until 2004, when brothers Vincent and Raphaël Bérêche began working with their father, Jean-Pierre, that it really started to shine. Inspired by growers like Pascal Agrapart, the siblings immediately began ringing the changes in the search for higher quality. Although there is no official delineation in the brothers’ day-to-day work, you will most likely find Vincent Bérêche in the vines. The quality starts with thoughtful viticulture and low yields, and they benefit from a high percentage of old vines—many planted in the 1960s and ’70s. Upon their arrival, the brothers were among the first in the Montagne to abandon chemical herbicides, returning instead to the labour-intensive manual cultivation of their vines.

Vincent is aided by a team of 11 full-time employees—allowing for around one hectare per person. This is a figure you might expect from a very top Burgundy domaine. By any measure, the work is fastidious and includes restricting yields and ploughing between the rows and the vines. Organic and biodynamic farming methods encourage soil and vine health, and this remains one of few estates in Champagne that perpetuates the work of mass selection from its old vines.

Where Vincent is the quiet one, Raphaël Bérêche is the ‘face’ of the domaine. Not only a marvellous winemaker unafraid to experiment and take risks, but he is also sharp as a tack and one of grower Champagne’s most charismatic and outspoken evangelists. “Raphaël Bérêche is young, but his sheer enthusiasm and conviction will likely take him far,” was Antonio Galloni’s astute observation back in 2012. Terres et Vins, the tasting group he founded with Aurélien Laherte, is one of the hottest tickets in town—as well it might be, counting the likes of Agrapart and Chartogne-Taillet among its members. Importantly, this group was the first, and remains one of the few, to show their vin clairs (the still base wines before bubbles enter the story) to the trade each year. This kind of transparency is still almost unheard of in Champagne.

The functional cellar reflects a minimalist aesthetic focused on traditional winemaking. Bérêche employs long, natural fermentations, and critically, due to the low pH and high acidity of the grapes, the wines naturally don’t go through malolactic fermentation. Each parcel is vinified separately, which makes it possible to taste the various parcels from barrel or tank just after the harvest, just like in Burgundy. Three-quarters of the production spends time in used 350-litre barrels, while the reserve wines are held in 600-litre demi-muids. Bottling occurs without filtration. Bérêche is also noted for its extended lees aging under cork, necessitating at least three years in the cellar, where 24 months can be sufficient under crown seal*.

Our aforementioned appointment took place back in 2016. Even then, the brothers’ rocky, tension-fuelled Champagnes had already positioned Bérêche as one of the hottest names in the best wine bars of Paris and Champagne. Fast forward to 2024, and Bérêche has had to close its book to new clients, both private and trade. The commentary at the top of this offer points to how far the brothers have come in a relatively short time. Dense and textured yet savoury and taut, the wines have been among the region’s most vinous and exciting for many years. Today, they are more precise and elegant than ever. The top wines are stunning and comfortably stand up to—and in most cases blow away—the region’s best-known prestige cuvées, while the compact, laser-focused Brut Reserve lives up to its ‘rockstar’ billing. If you are a Champagne lover and don’t know these wines, you are missing out.

* The back label of each bottle of Bérêche contains the phrase, ‘prise de mousse sous liège’. This old method of aging each wine under cork instead of a crown seal largely died out with the arrival of new technology in the 1950s. Aging under cork is far more time-consuming and considerably more expensive—and also requires the highest-grade ‘Fleur’ cork—yet has become a key component of the quality and style of this grower’s wines.

Aging under cork “gives more complex, less linear wines”, says Raphaël Bérêche, “The texture of the mousse is creamier, and the wine has more breadth. We have been working this way for 30 years, and the cork has a real impact. Blind tasting, it always comes out the best.” Having carried out his own experiments since the early 1990s, Pascal Agrapart works in the same way. He believes this method allows slightly more oxygen to get to the wine during the second fermentation, resulting in Champagnes with finer bubbles and seamless texture. “It’s a bit like the difference between vinification in stainless steel or barrels.”