Samuel Berger
Fabulous French winemaker producing exciting Bio-dynamic wines in the Minervois region
- Samuel is winemaker for John Hegarty, top ad man in London, whilst they don't need our financial support and can be found for sale elsewhere in the UK we admired the organic/ biodynamic winemaking and fabulous quality so much we just had to buy it
- His aim is to make the vineyard as sustainable as possible and encourage biodiversity at Chamans - to work in harmony with Nature. He sees his job as nurturing Nature into each bottle
- This is a vineyard with some famous fans, Robert Parker and Jancis Robinson have both rated their wines highly! He is also good friends with our Minervois star Benjamin Daurnault
Vineyard Location
Samuel Berger's Story
Samuel Berger's Story
"Hello, my name is Samuel and I’m the Winemaker here at Domaine Hegarty Chamans.
My greatest hope is to see or hear wine tasters touched by a "je ne sais quoi" in the wine which brings them to want to know more about the wine, about the land where it’s roots grew up.
Before you open a bottle of our wine, here are some facts that may help you enjoy it.
Domaine Hegarty Chamans sits in the foothills of the Montagne Noire,3 kms from the village of Trausse in the Minervois. Our 17ha of south facing vines are surrounded by thyme-scented garrigue and isolated from other vineyards. This allows us to pursue our own agricultural philosophy.
John Hegarty and Philippa Crane purchased the vineyard in 2002. In 2003 I joined the team and we rennovated the cave and proceeded to carefully move from conventional agriculture (using chemicals) to organic.
This can’t be done instantly. You have to slowly reduce chemical farming and nurture the vines to organic health over a number of years. We achieved Ecocert certification in 2009 after 3 full years of organic farming. Since 2009, we’ve also adopted Biodynamic viticulture.
You don’t just drink the wine, you drink the place.
Our symbol, the black sheep, is there to remind us that we can make exciting wines if we don’t follow the crowd.
Our production is 90% red from Syrah, Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre. Cinsault vines balanced with Marsanne and Roussanne for the white. In 2007 we planted additional Roussanne, Grenache blanc and Clairette.
When I’m asked as the Winemaker, what I’m trying to achieve, I always reply simply … elegance. We believe that although wines from our region are noted for their forthright qualities, we think ours also offer complexity and subtlety.
My top tip for tasting our wines. Open one and drink a couple of glasses, put the cork back in (don’t pump it) and keep in the fridge and try it the next day. Then do that for a third day. You’ll find the wine opening up and developing subtle and distinctive flavours that are not so evident in the first 2 glasses. I personally think this is a good test for any quality wine.
I’m really pleased we’re working with Naked Wines. It’s exciting to get closer to our customers and connect with them in a unique and interesting way.
Hopefully you’ll learn from us and we’ll learn from you. We call this a win/win situation.
Shouldn’t everything in life be like that?"
