As of yet, Jérôme Prévost is still little known to the general wine-drinking public. If you’re serious about Champagne however, you are likely to not only know him but to worship him. Unfortunately, with an annual production of only 13,000 bottles, Prevost’s wine is not always easy to obtain. Jérôme Prévost inherited a vineyard from his grandmother in the village of Gueux, and it was his close friend Anselme Selosse who encouraged and guided him to begin crafting wine from this parcel. Prévost's first vintage was in 1998, and for the early years of his winemaking journey, Selosse graciously allowed him to use his winery. This collaboration continued until 2003, after which Prévost began making wine in the garage at the rear of his home in Gueux.
Following in Selosse's footsteps, Prévost adopted a similar style; producing focused, intensely vinous cuvées with very low levels of dosage. His commitment to minimal intervention and emphasis on expressing the purest form of his terroir quickly garnered recognition and now his wines have become highly coveted by Champagne enthusiasts and collectors worldwide.
Prévost is more than just a white hot superstar. He changed the course of Champagne history, igniting the current trend towards showcasing Pinot Meunier. His iconic La Closerie “Les Béguines” proved that Meunier is capable, entirely on its own, of producing Champagne of such explosive complexity that we wonder why wasn’t it discovered before?
Prévost is an artist at heart; he was a painter as a young man and later turned to sculpting, photography and other passions but his interest in art has led to several artists visiting his estate and working in his vineyards. He has also organised wine and poetry celebrations with many great poets, such as Valérie Rouzeau, James Sacré, Bernard Bretonnière and even the famed American John Giorno. He once explained: “I like words because they are like vines, planted in the soils of culture.
”Prévost’s vines were planted in the ‘60s before what Prévost calls the “great industrial revolution in Champagne”. This was before mechanisation, chemicals and clones became the norm. For this reason, the vines were planted with a good rootstock based on quality rather than yield. It’s a rootstock that plunges deep but takes far longer to grow above the ground, the opposite of what producers were looking for post-’70s.
Prévost’s initial idea was to produce one wine each year from one vineyard (les Béguines), one grape variety (Meunier) and one vintage. Sometimes, Prévost also bottles a small amount of rosé. This has evolved over time, mainly thanks to the treacherous nature of his frost-prone terroir. The domaine’s devastating losses in 2017 prompted him to pivot from RM status (estate-only fruit) to NM (estate and purchased fruit) in order to make sustainable levels of wine. Prévost managed to secure some fruit from his neighbour’s vines in Les Béguines, along with some other parcels in Gueux, all on the same soils as the estate vines. The wine from these new sources is simply called La Closerie and carries a striking red ampersand motif on the label.
The wines of Jérôme Prévost are as complex and intriguing as the man himself. So, how to sum them up in a few words? Tasting notes are useless as the wines shift, turn and evolve. What we can say in general terms is that they are dry, vinous, aromatic, floral, spicy wines with huge energy, drive and longevity. They are textured yet tightly wound. They are wildly complex, never boring and great with food. They also benefit enormously from time in the cellar.