Domaine Bersan
Region
Bourgogne
Vineyard
Domaine Bersan farms twenty hectares; thirteen of white grapes, seven of red, on the hillsides along the east bank of the Yonne valley, ten kilometres south of Auxerre and fifteen west of Chablis. The subsoil is Jurassic clay-limestone: Portlandian stone caps the hilltops while Kimmeridgian marl, the soil of Chablis itself, runs through the slopes. From these parcels come nearly ten Burgundy appellations: Saint-Bris, Irancy, Chablis, Bourgogne Côtes d’Auxerre, Bourgogne Aligoté and Crémant de Bourgogne among them planted to Aligoté, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, plus the confidential Fyé Gris that nearly disappeared from France. Vines have been grown in Saint-Bris-le-Vineux since the first centuries of our era, and since 2023 the whole estate has been certified organic (Ecocert).
Winemaking
The Bersans have been vignerons in Saint-Bris since 1453; today Pierre-Louis Bersan leads the domaine alongside his father Jean-François, above family cellars dating back to the eleventh century. The winemaking is the same across the range and disarmingly simple: gentle pneumatic pressing and fermentation with indigenous yeasts only, never cultured yeasts, never added enzymes, so each wine is carried by the natural work of its own must.
Most cuvées are raised in stainless steel to keep their northern freshness and aromatic clarity intact, while the old-vine Marianne parcel selections and the Fyé Gris mature in seasoned oak barrels, none of them new. The result is a range of precise, aromatic, terroir-driven whites and reds that taste exactly of where they come from: Burgundy’s cool northern edge.
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