Jerome Prevost, La Closerie Grand Cru, 2020

Rich, Complex, Intense

Champagne / Sparkling / Pinot Noir, Chardonnay/ Organic

 
* Please note that because there is limited stock of this wine it is not subject to any further discount. 

For the Grand Cru Champagne Extra Brut, fermentation takes place with the use of indigenous yeasts in French oak barrels and the base wines mature in wood. The refermentation takes place in the bottle, before resting on the lees for at least 24 months before desgorgement.

Notes on the producer

Jérôme Prévost started in 1987, taking over a 1.5ha parcel of pinot meunier vines in Gueux (to the west of Reims) called Les Béguines inherited by his mother, who spurred him into action by doubting whether he could ever make it as a winemaker. He sold the grapes on to the négoce for the first ten years, primarily because he didn’t have a cave. He also worked with Anselme Selosse who allowed him to use his cellars in Avize from where he made Les Béguines from 1998 to 2003. He then made his champagnes in a garage behind his house, before moving in 2018 to a beautifully designed eco-friendly house and cave alongside his vineyard.

He now works a 2.2ha vineyard where the 55 million years old (Thanetian) soils are deep strata of clays, sands and limestone, that weather out many marine fossils. Planted by massal selection on good rootstock in the 1960s before says Jérôme, "the industrial revolution arrived in the vineyards during the 1970s and clones and chemical solutions became the norm". Yields here are naturally low and give intense fruit, particularly important for the pinot meunier grape, which is not overly perfumed and gives little unless picked ripe. As it is very rarely picked at optimum maturity in the region it doesn’t have the reputation that it deserves comments Jérôme. Viticulture is straightforward although meticulous, light hand ploughing under vine at the end of winter, grass is allowed to grow naturally until summer when it is mowed. His champagnes are made in an unmanipulated (no unnecessary use of gadgetry and use of electricity avoided wherever possible) natural style with indigenous yeasts, vinification and élevage for 10 months in a mix of new to 13yo barrels of all sizes from 225l to 600l. He neither racks, filters nor stabilises the wine, uses 23g/l for the secondary fermentation, then gives 14 to 17 months bottle age and disgorges with around 2g/l.