A Family Story
Jacques BERGER (1894 - 1984)
Gérard BERGER (1925 - 2010)
Xavier BERGER (1959)
Paul BERGER (1988)
In the hamlet of Mercey, part of the parish of Cheilly-les-Maranges, there stands a Priory, built by the monks from Cluny in the 13th century. And this is where it all began…
At the time of the French Revolution, Mercey Priory was bought up by the ancestors of the BERGER family. A large area of the local hillsides was already covered with vines. The first half of the 20th century was a very difficult time for this area: first of all, Burgundy was not spared when the phylloxera crisis wiped the entire European wine-growing region off the map, and then the two World Wars, with between them a serious economic crisis in the 1930s. The region’s wine-growers moved to town, in Le Creusot, to retrain for work in industry.
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At the end of the Second World War, Jacques BERGER (1894–1984) bought the early 19th century Manoir de Mercey.
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In 1960, his son Gérard BERGER (1925-2010) gradually turned it into a veritable wine-growing estate by planting 12 Ha (30 acres) of vineyards. He added his wife Laure Rive’s name to his own to create the “Domaine Berger-Rive”.
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In 1977, Xavier BERGER joined his father, and took over running the Domaine Berger-Rive estate when Gérard retired in 1989. He gradually enlarged the Domaine, with the firm intention, all along the way, to better understand our terroirs and continue the quest for excellence in our wines.
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In 2015, it is the arrival of the fourth generation on the estate with Paul BERGER, the youngest of Xavier and Virginie’s three children. Wishing to pursue this wonderful wine, family, cultural and patrimonial adventure.
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In 2020, after 5 years of collaboration as a father-son duo, Paul took over the reins of the estate, while increasing the vineyard to 26 Ha (64 acres).
The Domaine Berger-Rive
The Domaine Berger-Rive estate lies at Mercey, in the peaceful valley of the Cozanne and Les Maranges. All around us are the slopes of famous vineyards, majestic cliffs, trout rivers, grazing land, and picturesque villages.
A fine 19th-century property, the Domaine Berger-Rive manor-house is surrounded by grounds with two-hundred-year-old trees. The wine-growing estate today covers 26 Ha (64 acres), split between the Côte de Beaune et the Côte Chalonnaise. The Domaine’s wines get their diversity and richness from the different soil types.
The Domaine’s grape harvest is made into wine in the estate winery and then aged in superb vaulted cellars. Paul BERGER does everything possible, with his team, to ensure that each of the Domaine’s bottles expresses the quality of its soil type while following the desire style.
The vineyard
The vineyard of the Domaine Berger-Rive covers 26 Ha (64 acres) :
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16 Ha (40 acres) in the south of the Côte de Beaune :
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AOP Hautes Côtes de Beaune
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AOP Bourgogne Pinot Noir
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AOP Bourgogne Aligoté
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10 Ha (25 acres) in the north of the Côte Chalonnaise :
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AOP Rully
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AOP Mercurey
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The vineyards are run in a way that respects sustainable wine-growing, with a desire to bring back traditional methods of cultivation, in particular the manner of digging-over known as “bêchage”.
By restructuring the soil, “bêchage” improves the health of the vine, which are in this way better able to resist disease and the vagaries of the weather. Treatments and fertilizers are thereby significantly reduced. Thanks to this traditional technique, the Domaine’s vineyards no longer suffer from soil erosion. What’s more, the vine roots are forced to go deeper in search of nourishment, which means that they express the characteristics of the soil type all the better.
Two-thirds of our vineyard are planted with high vines, which grow to a height of 2 m, with 2.2 m between rows. Planting using this method produces a healthier environment and hence reduces the pressure of disease, which in turn makes it possible to limit the use of plant treatments. Work in the vineyard is made easier — mechanized work can be done with an ordinary tractor, more stable and maneuverable than a high-clearance tractor, and manual work no longer involves bending down, which is much more comfortable for the workers.
Certified
High Environmental Value
The Domaine has been HEV certified by the French government since January 2020,
and 2017 is the first vintage to benefit from the certification.
It is a source of great pride for the entire team at the estate and a great recognition of all the efforts made generation after generation on the family farm in favor of biodiversity and the environment.