Jerome Prevost, Les Beguines, 2023

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.