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. She spurred him into action by doubting whether he could ever make it as a winemaker. He sold the grapes to the négoce for the first ten years, primarily because he had no 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.
Jérôme is an artist at heart, working as a painter as a young man and then later turning to sculpture and photography. He loves to scour local marché aux puces for tiny objets d’art, write poetry, and organise literary celebrations.
He now works a 2.2ha vineyard where the 55 million-year-old (Thanetian) soils are deep strata of clays, sands, and limestone, which weather many marine fossils. Planted by massive 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, the grass is allowed to grow naturally until summer when it is mowed, sexual confusion is practised against insects. His champagnes are made in an unmanipulated natural style with indigenous yeasts, vinification and élevage for 10 months in a mix of new to 13yo barrels of all sizes from 225l to 600l. He neither racks, filters, nor stabilises the wine, uses 23g/l for the secondary fermentation, then gives 14 to 17 months bottle age and disgorges with around 2g/l. His bottlings are the ultimate expression of champagne as fine wine. They always repay ageing for several years for anyone who can resist temptation and cellar a few bottles – Jérôme reckons that they start to open out when they are around six years old!