Gueux!.
Doesn’t really ring a bell in relation to wine does it? But I’ll give you a
clue. We are in Champagne country - 15km west of Reims. No?
Anyway -
Gueux is a small cosy town – to a degree of romantic with lovely houses, clean
pavements and an almost obligatory magnolia tree in the front gardens. Even the
café here is nicer and made in a more chick look. The town is quite, which is
something I am use to, when I drive around in Champagne. Despite Champagnes
exuberant and festive reputation, the regions and its towns are somewhat sleepy
towns. On the outside that is, because as soon as you get inside – down to
those dark cellars, a huge hospitality awaits - and damn good wine to.
We arrived
from the south a day in April and had been driving through endless landscapes
of vineyards. But as you cross the town sign of Gueux, the vineyard setting
comes to an end. You sense you are
closer to Reims and a more common landscape of approaching roads and suburbs
neighbourhood.
(The tractor - go home Ferrari)
Yet in
Gueux resides a Champagne producer. Jérôme Prévost is his name and I suspect
that bell rang?
Yet upon
arrival at his house, he is not home. A where is the cellar? Instead I can see
a cedar wood looking barn. It’s a little bit open. I am even more curious now.
We find out that he is in the vineyard, which should be located 6-700 meters up
the road. After turning left we start to sense that there are in fact vineyards
in Gueux. The vineyards here are not your romantic notion of sloping hills,
where a sparkling sunlight warms up the soil from hilltop in the distance. No!
– Here the land is flat as a pancake. It’s not exactly screaming for attention
and Jérôme’s vineyard " Les Béguines” are here with 5-6 other parcels. We see Jérôme in the distance – all alone
and on a behemoth of a tractor.
He jumps of
and greets a handful of passionate wine people from Denmark. “It’s a good day
to plow – such an occasion should not be missed, he says”. It’s already the
fourth time he plows this year and it doesn’t take you long to see his vineyard
looks a bit more healthy that it’s neighbours. The “other” parcels here sadly
look like a lot of other vineyards in Champagne. Depleted soils, sprayed with
small blue plastic pieces and other metals parts ranging from nails, glass to
batteries. The small blue plastic pieces are a shameful chapter in Champagne.
In the 1970s the Parisians cleverly disposed of a composting of household
waste. “When the soil is so poor of life, the roots seek upwards to find
nutrition and this is really not good”.
"Les
Béguines” is the story about this very flat vineyard. 2ha of very sandy soils,
planted with Pinot Meunier, which by now are about 50 years of age. Pinot
Meunier is like most of you probably know Champagnes rustic cousin and often
not so highly praised. It’s paradoxically the most planted in Champagne. Yet
it’s actually because it’s seldom seen as a mono grape release, but often
blended to give some growling baseline. Before I got introduce to these grower
Champagnes, I often perceived Pinot Meunier as being pretty baroque and often a
very clumsy grape. But for sure in blends –like Krug Vintage, it acts as a good
trio partner, giving opposition to the refine tonality of Chardonnay and the
aristocratic Pinot Noir.
”Les
Béguines” is for sure filled with sand – but also lots of fossils. It can be a
little hard to imagine, when you stand here in present time – and with 350km to
the nearest coastline - that about 45million years ago the seabed was here in
Gueux. The seas erosion has created massive layers of calcareous sand
formations and fossils with tiny crustaceans. It’s not exactly hurting the
quality of the terroir.
At the end
of the vineyard you see a small white house and this is Jérôme 's childhood
home. So you would think that he was born to make wine and walk the footsteps
of his parents? But it was not like that. His parents didn’t even make wine and
the vineyards belonged to his grandmother. She even leased the land out. Jérôme
's interest in life, took a different path towards a more artistic angle, with
painting, philosophy, and photography. When he got the offer to take over
" Les Beguines " it was not something he just jumped into with open
arms. But in 1987 he decide to give it a go and Domaine "La Closerie"
is born. The first period is all about bringing the vineyard back to balance by
working with respect for nature and no use of pesticides. The juice is initially
sold to negociants, while Jérôme seeks inspiration and knowledge. But it ‘s as
if he is constantly struggling with the prejudice that you can not make great
wine in Gueux and certainly not on such a flat and sandy vineyard, planted with
dull Pinot Meunier. Perhaps that why, he in 1995/96 takes a journey to Jura. Jura
was about seeking inspiration, but he was also on the verge of obtaining a
vineyard there. Today, he looks back and says:” It was a great adventure with Jura,
but it was ultimately too difficult for me to leave my home ."
Instead he
starts as an apprentice of Anselme Selosse. He tells us how he learned more
about making wine the first day with Anselme, than he had ever learned before.
Anselme gives Jérôme a task of pumping wine from a cask to another. Jérôme had
never tried this before and Anselme begin to explain how to use the pump, but
can see that Jerome is a little bit lost in all the technical information.
Anselme stops and says to Jérôme "When you are dealing with wine making,
both in the cellar and in the vineyard you are using your body and soul. You
constantly need to ask yourself - why am I doing this? What is the meaning of
this? Is it necessary?”
Personally I
don’t know Jérôme very well, but hearing his story and spending some time with
him, you begin to understand why this winemaker is so curious - why he
constantly seeks inspiration (you will see later) and ask questions. When you combine
it with a man of great intellect, humour and his artistic background, you begin
to understand why the outcome is a pretty personal wine.
Jérôme
spends 5 years with Anselme and it’s also him, who helps him to make the first
vintages at his address in Avize. ‘1998 is the first official release with
Jérôme Prévost on the label. In 2003 he leaves Anselme to make wine in Gueux. He
starts of with one wine: "Les Beguines”. In 2000 and 2003 vintage he makes
a wine called " d' Ailleurs “, which is limited cuvée, which have spent
+one year more in barrel. I
remember tasting the ’03 in London some four years ago and it was truly an
eye-opener. In 2007 a rosé sees the daylight, which goes by the name “Fac –
Simile”. We are again at Pinot Menier frequency and this is a very juicy cousin.
Yet I think many underestimate it’s potential due to its slightly polish candy
like feel. But as I see it “Fac –
Simile” age very well and right now the ’07s fruit core are starting to feel a
little dryer, saltier and obtaining that beautiful verbena note I adore in a
rosé Champagne.
With time
Jérôme have obtained more land and planted these with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay,
and Pinot Gris. The age of the vines are still very young and when he finally
decided to release some cuvée(s) it will be a very limited number of bottles.
All of his
Champagnes are non-vintage btw – despite they are never blended. So we deal
with vintage juice, but officially non-vintage Champagne, as it falls short of
the AOC-rules of 36 months on lees. This is quit common when it comes to the
small growers. They simple don’t have economy of scale like the big houses, nor
do they have the required space in their cellars. Jérôme’s Champagnes taste
damn fine when released – especially his trademark of insanely sophisticated
spices. Yet! – I have to say, I feel confident they will improve even more
after 5-6 years after disgorgement.
Back in the
vineyard, Jérôme have really warmed up and a talking about sugar strings,
enzymes, proteins, and how you must ensure oxygen in the soils to pump energy
into the vines. It’s not your everyday talk for a number idiot like me and you
really have to concentrate. But Jérôme explains it really well. Basically he is trying to tell us what
nature can do over modern winemaking. If you only leave the sugar addition (Chaptalisation) and enzyme treatment
for modern techniques in the cellar you are only extracting one chord to the
wine's perfect symphony. But if you provide nature with the right growth
conditions - to form sugar naturally, you get endless strings of DNA and it
creates a much higher energy and complexity. It’s also one of the reasons why
Jérôme never do Chaptalisation to his Champagnes. Instead he harvest with ripe
maturity and about 10.5% natural alcohol. Only the natural indigenous yeast is
used in the winemaking process.
One hour
later we are back in the cellar…sorry barn…. Finally the Vikings can get
something to drink.
We kick of
with 2012 Vins clairs. 2012 was on an extreme year. A rough winter, with
temperatures hitting lows of -20 degrees Celsius in late February. Spring was
wet as hell and even includes a devastating hailstorm. The summer was nothing
to write about either, before a 10-day heat wave window opens in August and
produces temperatures of 40 Celsius. The August window was sent from heaven and
saves the harvest. Yet 2012 will still be marked by the rough winter condition and
almost everyone reports of a very small harvest. This also goes for Jérôme
Prévost, who normally produces 13.000 bottles, but in 2012-vintage he will only
release about 6.000. The quality is however really promising.
Hereafter
awaits an interesting experiment. Two Champagnes are in play in our Zalto White
Wine glasses. The first is lively, light and flowery. Elegant, delicate, yet
also a bit short on the last meters. Such a Champagne would be perfect as an aperitif.
The second one is more brutal, direct with higher energy and structure. Here
you sense the trademark of Prévost, those sophisticated spices, which is really
why this guy masters the Pinot Meunier like no other. This is a Champagne to
drink with food.
Jérôme
looks around and is curious to know our opinions’.
The verdict
is the same – we all prefer Champagne no. 2.
But!!!
It’s the
same wine – same vintage – both the challenging 2010 vintage.
What! –
This can’t be, they are so different? But there is a reason. One of them is a
“mistake”. An accident. The accidental wine is No.2. You see, Jérôme’s cellar
employee by mistake forgot to add Bentonite. And what is Bentonite? It’s first
of all a clay species, which is added to Champagne, securing the dead yeast
residuals will petrify and slowly be transported to the neck of the bottle
under remuage. If Bentonite is not added, the yeast residuals will not petrify
and turn into a small blurry substance inside the bottle and make the juice
unclear. “Think about it – Jérôme says, in Champagne we are obsessed with the
clarity. Why do you think we call it Vins Clairs?”. Jérôme discovers the
”mistake” after 300 bottles – yet he doesn’t really look sad. Once again, this
is a curious winemaker, not following a straight line and all the traditions.
And maybe – Bentonite is not added to some bottles on purpose in the future.
Who knows?
From here a
bombardment of vintage floats at a steady pace. Both rosé and ”Les Béguines”.
Jérôme is eager to hear what he think and takes notice off everything being said.
As you know I have tasted many of these wines before and if I should chose a
favourite it would have to be the ’08. It’s simply magic. Jérôme nods – “I am
pretty satisfied with my ’08s he says” with a warm twinkle in his eye.
We finish,
outside. It’s crisp April weather. Jérôme has a tradition of serving wines from
other producers, who inspires him. A myriad of wines awaits us, with producers
like Frederic Cossard, Ganevat, Philippe Pacalet etc. I am in heaven.
This is one
those visits you just don’t forget. Thank you Jérôme and see you soon.
You can
find another report on Jérôme Prévost here.
(Let the party begin) 
(Frederic Cossard)
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