Champagne La Closerie (Jérôme Prévost)

Jérôme Prévost's story begins not with a winemaking ambition but with an inheritance. He received the Les Béguines vineyard in Gueux from his grandmother in 1987, when he was still a young man trained as a painter, sculptor, and photographer rather than a vigneron. For a decade he sold the fruit to négociants, as so many small growers in Champagne did. The turning point came in 1995 when he began working alongside Anselme Selosse at Domaine Jacques Selosse in Avize, absorbing Selosse's philosophy of terroir expression, oxidative barrel ageing, and minimal intervention. Prévost launched La Closerie in 1998, producing his first wines in Selosse's cellars before moving to a garage behind his home in Gueux in 2002 and eventually opening an eco-friendly purpose-built cellar adjacent to the vineyard in 2018.

• Inherited Les Béguines from his grandmother in 1987; sold grapes to négociants from 1987 to 1997
• Worked at Jacques Selosse, Avize from 1995 to 1998 under Anselme Selosse's direct mentorship
• First commercial releases produced in Selosse's Avize cellars from 1998 to 2001
• Relocated to a new eco-friendly cellar adjacent to Les Béguines in 2018

La Closerie remains a genuinely intimate family operation. Jérôme Prévost continues as sole winemaker and has been actively producing and releasing wines through 2024 and 2025. From 2021 onwards, Agnès Prévost has been formally credited in vineyard acquisitions and recent releases, and the two are jointly named on current bottlings. The domaine expanded modestly in 2019 and 2020 with a micro-négoce operation under the label La Closerie, using fruit sourced from growers in Gueux and Janvry on sandy soils, created specifically to compensate for climate-related yield losses rather than as a commercial expansion. Recent releases include the 2022 base Les Béguines disgorged in August to October 2024, which received 96 points from Wine Advocate in May 2025.

• Jérôme Prévost is the sole winemaker; Agnès Prévost is jointly credited on releases from 2021 onwards
• Micro-négoce label La Closerie launched 2019 to 2020 using sourced fruit from Gueux and Janvry
• 2022 base Les Béguines LB22 scored 96 points from Wine Advocate, May 2025
• Domaine remains first-generation; no succession change has been announced

The heart of La Closerie is Les Béguines, a 2.2-hectare plot in Gueux on the Petite Montagne de Reims. Planted in 1964 from massale selection material, the vineyard is overwhelmingly Pinot Meunier at 94%, with 2% each of Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir as field blends within the rows. The soils are Thanetian sandstone and limestone over a chalk bedrock containing marine fossils, giving the site a distinctly different geological character from the pure chalk of Epernay or the Côte des Blancs. Since 2021, the domaine has added 0.28 hectares of Grand Cru Chardonnay in Mesnil-sur-Oger, planted in the 1980s with massal selections, and works collaboratively with a grower in Puisieulx for Grand Cru Pinot Noir from 1960s vines. The total holding amounts to 2.28 hectares of owned and farmed land.

• Les Béguines: 2.2 hectares in Gueux, planted 1964, 94% Pinot Meunier, massale selection, Thanetian sandstone and limestone over chalk
• Mesnil-sur-Oger: 0.28 hectares Grand Cru Chardonnay acquired in spring 2021, massal-selection vines planted 1980s
• Puisieulx: Grand Cru Pinot Noir from 1960s vines, sourced collaboratively from a co-grower in Montagne de Reims
• Yields are approximately half the legal Champagne maximum; horse ploughing practiced; zero chemical additives

Prévost's winemaking is defined by restraint and precision. Fermentation is spontaneous using only indigenous yeasts, and the wines age for 10 months in a mix of 225-litre to 600-litre barrels, both new and used oak. There is no fining, no filtration, and no cold stabilisation. Sulfur is used only minimally. The Fac-simile rosé incorporates 13% still red Meunier vinified from vines carrying the leafroll virus, a trait associated with concentrated, deeply coloured fruit, and that component ages 10 months in 228-litre barrels before blending. Disgorgement occurs 14 to 17 months after bottling, which is unusually brief by traditional Champagne standards, and Prévost recommends allowing the wines to evolve for six or more years after disgorgement rather than drinking them young. Dosage on Les Béguines is non-dosé or a maximum of 2.5 grams per litre; Fac-simile is dosed at 2 to 3 grams per litre.

• Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts; 10 months in 225L to 600L mixed new and used oak barrels
• No fining, no filtration, no cold stabilisation; minimal sulfur use
• Disgorgement 14 to 17 months after bottling, shorter than Champagne norms; post-disgorgement ageing of 6 or more years recommended
• Fac-simile rosé: 87% Les Béguines base plus 13% still red Meunier from leafroll-virus vines, dosed at 2 to 3 g/L

La Closerie is a reference point in modern Champagne for two reasons: it elevated Pinot Meunier from a blending workhorse to a single-vineyard hero, and it demonstrated that a sub-3-hectare domaine working with minimal intervention could achieve cult status through rigorous terroir specificity. Prévost is part of the broader grower Champagne movement often labelled the Champagne Renegades, alongside producers like Jacques Selosse and Cedric Bouchard, but his focus on a single plot and a single variety makes his work especially focused. For students of the WSET Diploma or MW programme, La Closerie illustrates the contrast between the large-house blending model and the grower single-vineyard philosophy, and it serves as a textbook example of how Selosse's influence spread through a generation of small producers. With around 1,100 cases produced per vintage across all cuvées, the wines are rarely seen on open retail shelves.

• Pioneered single-vineyard, single-variety Pinot Meunier Champagne; part of the grower Champagne movement alongside Jacques Selosse and Cedric Bouchard
• Production of approximately 1,100 cases per vintage makes it one of the smallest serious Champagne domaines; wines are predominantly sold through allocation
• Anselme Selosse mentorship links La Closerie directly to the foundational philosophy of terroir-driven, oxidatively aged grower Champagne
• Jérôme Prévost's background as a visual artist informs the domaine's artistic and philosophical identity, reflected in label design and estate communications