Domaine partagé Gilles Berlioz - Chignin Bergeron Les Fripons 2018

Gilles and Christine founded their winery in 1990. It gradually expanded throughout the 1990s and was certified organic in 2002. As a disciple of Michel Grisard, Gilles adopted biodynamic farming practices and earned Demeter certification in 2018. The estate operates like a cooperative where everyone is committed to doing good work and making good wine. Four principles: no subsidies, soil worked with animal-drawn implements, everything done by hand, and everyone paid well. The wines are naturally styled—more ethereal than ostentatious—with cuvées featuring iconic labels.

The son of a factory worker, Gilles Berlioz is a self-taught and happy winemaker. Trained as a landscape architect, he started out in 1990 with 0.8 hectares in the Chignin area, with the help of his partner Christine. Today he has 6.5 hectares, plowed by horse, which were converted to organic farming in 2005 and then to biodynamic farming in 2020. Anthroposophy is at the heart of the estate. Gilles Berlioz must be the only winemaker in our guide who makes decisions in the vineyard or in the cellar alongside his employees and who shares his workforce with two other estates… Hence the rather unique term “shared estate.” Of the three children, it is Jeanne, the youngest, who is set to take the reins. From the simple Chignin to the Mondeuse, including the exceptional Chignin-Bergeron wines vinified from single-vineyard selections, all the wines offer expressions of striking depth of flavor. The aging process is remarkably simple, with no oak. Discerning wine lovers snap up these masterfully crafted wines, which are produced in very limited quantities. The welcome at the estate is warm. An essential destination that has paved the way for an entire region and an entire generation.