2018 Jerome Prevost, La Closerie Les Beguines 1x750ml

Robert Parker 95

The NV Extra Brut Les Beguines LC 18 is a wine of immense charm and generosity of spirit. Mingling aromas of walnuts, fenugreek, pear, yellow orchard fruit, licorice, white flowers and buttery pastry with evocations of peach and apricot, it’s full-bodied, fleshy and voluptuous, with a broad and textural attack that segues into an ample, enveloping core, concluding with a sapid finish. "These were the nicest grapes I’ve ever seen when assessed simply as fruit," Prevost remarks, contrasting the 2018 crop with the smaller berries and thicker skins of, for instance, 2015 "which were great grapes from which to make wine." As I’ve written before, Jerome Prevost farms just over two hectares of old-vine Pinot Meunier in the village of Gueux, where the soils are a millefeuille of calcareous sands and clays. Working with a variety that’s often sneered at, in a village few have heard of, and with terroirs that are far removed from the clay-chalk stereotype that dominates discussion of Champagne, Prevost’s tiny estate named La Closerie nonetheless produces some of the most sought-after wines in Champagne and some of my personal favorites. Prevost started making his wine in Anselme Selosse’s cellar with the 1998 vintage, moving into his own facility in 2003. He harvests late something that’s essential if Pinot Meunier is to have character and ferments his wine in barrel. Like Selosse, he doesn’t top up his barrels while the vins clairs mature, so they often develop a light "voile" or veil of yeasts that lends subtle biologically aged characteristics to his wines. "I wouldn’t do that if I were making still wines," he explains, "but I think of the second fermentation in bottle as being like a ‘crucible’ that enables one to remodel a wine. The base wine may be tired after a year in barrel without topping up, but the fermentation in bottle gives it new life." Dosage is minimal, and Prevost says that in principle he likes working in a non-dose style because "it makes me uncomfortable it doesn’t forgive any faults; there’s nowhere to hide." As ever, it was a pleasure tasting chez Prevost, and my visit was the opportunity to discover two new cuvees. The first, labelled with an ampersand, is a Les Beguines-based blend deriving from purchased fruit. This is the continuation of the negociant project Prevost was obliged to begin in 2017 due to the caprice of Champagne’s climate and which he now formalizes as a distinct and clearly distinguished cuvee. A thirsty world will be delighted. And the second, one of Prevost’s one-off experimental cuvees, is the cuvee IOTA, described in the accompanying notes. [William Kelley, 03/31/2021]

Anticipated maturity: 2020-2035