2017 Jerome Prevost, La Closerie Les Beguines 1x750ml

Robert Parker 95

Prevost’s NV Extra Brut Les Beguines LC 17 is showing even better than it did a year ago, wafting from the glass with a lovely bouquet of honeycomb, walnuts, confit lemon, spices and warm bread. Full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it’s racy and incisive, with a deep and sapid core, bright acids and chalky structuring extract. While it is drinking very well young, it will evidently only go from strength to strength over the next decade. I tasted Jerome Prevost’s LC17 last year at his small winery, but I revisited it this spring, too, as the wine has now been released onto the market. 2017 was a challenging year for Prevost, combining the dilution of 2001, the rot of 2010, and the acetic rot of 2014, so yields were much reduced. Accordingly, he chose to purchase grapes from two other growers with 40 ares of vines in lieu-dit Les Beguines between them. In both parcels, the soils are cultivated and one of them Prevost was able to farm himself and he chose the harvest date himself. Prevost also supplemented the 2017 vintage with 40% reserve wines from 2016, the first time that he has released a blend rather than a wine derived from a single year. All this explains why LC17 bears the letters NM on the label, rather than RM, and Prevost hints that this may open doors to other purchases in the future. In any case, for all the tribulations of the growing season, Prevost’s LC17 has turned out brilliantly and will delight admirers of his extraordinary Champagnes. [William Kelley, 09/17/2020]

Anticipated maturity: 2020-2035