Pauline Collin-Bereche Ludes 1er Cru Vieilles Vignes Extra Brut Champagne 2020

“My tasting at Bereche was one of the highlights of the week I spent in Champagne. Quite frankly, the wines have never been better. Bereche is among the grower estates that have made a huge leap in both quality and consistency in recent years. Everything feels elevated here of late” -Antonio Galloni

I’ve been chasing Bérêche et Fils Champagne for a long, long time. I consider the superstar brothers pretty good friends as I’ve visited them on a few times, have taken frozen tours of the vineyards, met their wife and adorable kids and even eaten a 10-pound wheel of cheese for dinner with them (ask me for the story sometime, it’s great).

Their wine was a cornerstone of our list at Restaurant Nicholas, and for good reason – this tiny fifth-generation domaine creates some of the most compelling wines in all of Champagne.

The key to the Bereche success is the number of NYC accounts that line up to buy the wine. Today, the number stands around 130 restaurants, which exceeds pretty much every other grower in the entire market by a mile. It started with EMP who poured it for 6-7 years (almost unheard of for them to keep something so long). Le Bernardin took every bottle they could too.