From Garage Winery to Champagne Royalty: Jérôme Prévost ’s Legacy, Powered by One Single Grape

Few names in Champagne carry the weight of true cult status. Anselme Selosse is probably one of the first that springs to mind, but Jérôme Prévost is another personality who has firmly etched his mark. With his boutique Champagne house, La Closerie, located in the village of Gueux, just outside Reims, Prévost has attracted a devoted following among passionate champagne enthusiasts.

In a relatively short time, he rose to prominence as a highly regarded figure in the Grower Champagne scene thanks to one defining varietal: Pinot Meunier.

His artful manipulation of his flagship grape has turned heads and raised glasses, setting the Champagne world abuzz.

Yet, if Prévost’s champagnes have become today a benchmark of artisanal excellence, admired for their depth and character, his journey from garage tinkerer to champagne royalty was anything but ordinary - a story of unexpected brilliance."

Prévost embarked on his Champagne adventure in 1987 by taking control of a 2ha. parcel of Pinot Meunier vines called Les Béguines. Lieu-dit Les Béguines is a vineyard situated on Thanetian soils, which are 55 million years old and composed of a rich mix of clay, sand, and limestone, often revealing marine fossils. The vines, planted in the 1960s through massal selection on quality rootstock, predate the so-called "industrial revolution" in vineyards, which arrived in the 1970s with the introduction of clones and chemical treatments becoming the standard.

His career in winemaking was shaped by the mentorship of Anselme Selosse, one of the pioneers of biodynamic and natural champagne production. Yet if Jerome honed his craft as a protégé of Anselme Selosse, he did successfully carve out his own niche, establishing a signature style and identity that set his champagnes apart.

Prévost focuses on terroir-specific bottling, each crafted from a single grape variety (Meunier), a mono cru (Les Béguines) and vintage. The vines are worked without the use of insecticides or herbicides. All grapes are hand-harvested, and fermentation occurs with indigenous yeasts, using a mix of used barriques and 600L demi-muids. After around 16 -17 months, the champagnes are disgorged with minimal sulfur and no dosage, preserving the purity and character of the wine.

Prévost’s dedication to organic practices in the vineyard and his minimal intervention approach in the cellar yield Champagnes that perfectly reflect their unique terroir.

The star of Prévost’s production is of course the Meunier-based Les Béguines. But while it certainly stands as his signature wine, Jérôme also produces small quantities of the fascinating Fac-simile rosé, a rosé d'assemblage made from still Pinot Meunier. Both cuvées have established Prevost as the personification of Meunier, elevating the humble grape to iconic status.

Regrettably, with production so limited—only around a dozen barrels produced annually in his small winery—he yields fewer than 1,100 cases each year. These coveted bottles are swiftly seized by sommeliers, wine shops, and collectors who appreciate their rarity and recognize the worth of each drop. No respectable establishment aiming to be a top destination would dare leave Prévost’s champagne off its list.

Prévost’s focus on precision and quality has solidified his reputation as one of the most esteemed and pioneering growers in Champagne. But Jérôme’s talents stretch far outside the title of winemaker. A true polymath, he channels his creativity beyond the cellar, immersing himself in painting, sculpting, and photography, and pouring the same spirit and passion into his wines that define his artistry.

There’s something deeply fascinating about discovering the people behind the bottles and the legends they’ve built. Going behind the scenes reveals the seamless blend of nature and artistry—where the terroir meets the passion of the makers who pour their heart into every drop.

Every bottle of champagne is indeed a delicate dance between the land’s natural elements and the hands that transform it into liquid gold.

Interviewing Jérôme was an absolute pleasure, and I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to share his story in this article.

You’re situated on your grandmother’s vineyards in Gueux. She was of Polish origin and escaping World War I arrived in Gueux where she planted vines. Like her you are not of originally from the wine industry. Can you retrace the genesis of your incredible Champagne adventure?

I have read here and there that I inherited my grandmother’s vines. In fact, it is not the case. When I took over the vines in 1987, I couldn’t find a winery. There was no tractor, no equipment, no material, no building no cellar. I became the tenant of 1Ha66 of vines that had been abandoned for three years. I had to change the entire training system before my first harvest. I had to buy half of these vines from my uncle ten years later and today I am still renting the other half. Nothing that really looks like a princely inheritance. Starting from practically nothing, I had to sell the totality of my crops for first ten years of my activity. My wife, a nurse, and I lived in a low-rent apartment, and I would take our Citroën 2CV to drive to the vines. We lived on nothing, and we were happy. My wine culture was close to zero, but I wanted to learn, and I was very passionate. I was moving forward one step at a time. Books have always been very important for me and the first book relative to wine which I acquired was Hugh Johnson’s “The Story of Wine” (Une Histoire Mondiale du Vin). Our first three-day vacation for my wife Agnès and I were in Burgundy. On the first morning I bought a geological survey map from the local convenient store and came noon we had a picnic on the pony wall of the domaine de la Romanée-Conti. We already had an attraction for nature of places. Then there were many encounters in different appellations: Léonard Humbrecht, Jean Hugel, Anne Claude Leflaive, Jack Confuron, Didier Daguenau, Guy Bossard … I tried to discover each time the trick of the hand to craft good wine, the common denominator of all these great vignerons.

Anselme Selosse is a key figure in your professional journey. How did the two of you meet?

We met through a mutual friend. A classic encounter in Avize in his first cellar: a handshake followed by a tasting, a meal and great conversation – enough for us to imagine a sequel. Back then I was president of a group of young vignerons and we had established a document, a list of gestures to apply to the vine to produce beautiful grapes. This document, mode of conduct, was something we wanted to sell to the négociants-manipulants. This was also one answer to the crisis of the 1990s in Champagne. Going back to Selosse, this mutual friend thought our encounter could put the finishing touches to the work we had already accomplished. It was the case since, a few months later, I resigned from my union adventure to start a relationship with Selosse.

You worked by Selosse’s side for a few years then in 1998, he encouraged you to elaborate your own champagne in his cellar in Avize. A turning point which gave birth to your iconic cuvée, Les Béguines, with the back label reading “Guidé, Inspiré” (Guided, Inspired by). Was it difficult for you to create your own style and establish your qon individual signature?

I was never preoccupied by my style and signature. To my question “What is the key point to craft a great wine?”, Jean Hugel spontaneously answered “grapes, beautiful healthy grapes.”

I kept that in the back of my mind and moved forward. My vines being 50 km from Avize on a different geological soil with a particular grape not from a Grand Cru, a specific pruning system and staggered ripeness did not foster or favor an exchange on viticultural practices. I worked on my soils (a revolution in Champagne) two years before meeting Selosse. I practiced biodynamic farming and stopped before him. I was trying to produce grapes with the greatest possible maturity. My reflection got focused afterwards on a modulation of that maturity or how to handle grapes to achieve that goal. This was possible because of the soil work that was effectuated year after year.

Selosse and I had the idea in 2000 to create an Haute Couture style négoce (trade) with well sourced grapes. We wanted to affirm the importance of place in the expression of a champagne. We had a plan of action: to meet Jean Marie Guffens who had an interesting expertise via his business “Verget” in the Maconnais, meet a bank director, test and tease the idea among different people, secure contracts with vignerons to ensure grape supply, and find an evocative name to top it all of: Lieux-Dits. Quite a preparatory amount of work! Our desire was to let the vignerons be independent partners thus the idea of a form of “Campagnonnage” (Companionship) as it was practiced in the 19th century with the relationship between masters and companions. And since I was to be the first of these companions, certainly the principle was taken too far to set an example to the point of caricature. The story is only remembered for the overplayed relationship of the teacher/student rapport. We never reached the final stage of the development, meaning the actual implementation for reasons that I already identified and do not wish to develop here.

In 2003 you finally go solo, establishing your own production in your garage in Gueux, before building your winery next to your vineyard in 2018. How did this transition take place?

With the project of the trade gone away, I decided to focus on my vineyard by reorganizing a stable attached to the house in Gueux. It was a complicated time. I was working hard to create a stock while increasing the portion of grapes vinified. I had to buy a few machines. Bank accounts were depleted. We lived on my wife’s salary. I re-created a brand choosing a word that made sense: La Closerie. Evidently, I attached the name of the lieux-dits: Les Béguines. Two words that affirm the intention to express the importance of a place. In 2017, the old house in the heart of the village being too small and impractical, we jumped on the opportunity to build with more ease, a coherent entity (house, winery, vineyards) in front of the Béguines to live an immersive experience at all times. This relationship between the indoor and outdoor is quite unique and it is wonderful.

Where does the name LA CLOSERIE come from and what does it mean?

I wanted to pick a name that made sense. A “Closerie” in old French designated “a small rural exploitation of less than 2 Ha. without a ploughing ox”. All the work was effectuated by hand. The Closerie could be surrounded by hedges. It was sensibly the configuration of Les Béguines and of what I was living. And it also evokes the “clos”, the tension between a culture of “domestication” and the wild savagery of the world that surrounds it.

You’re located in Gueux in the Montagne de Reims on a unique soil composed of Thanetian limestone sand and marine shell fossils more than 50 million years old. How does the identity of this exceptional terroir manifest itself in your champagnes?

The answer must be prudent and humble. To tell you the truth it was a source of anguish at the beginning. I was taught that the geology in Champagne was de facto made of chalk, and that said chalk was 20 meters deep on the parcel thus unattainable by the roots. Would the fragile shell limestone of Les Béguines (they break down to the touch) present at 80 cm be sufficient to leave a trace in the wine? Jules Guyot in 1860 wrote that wines do not offer a taste of the terroir, rather they offer a taste of tartrate coming from the vinification in barrels. Jules Chauvet in the 80s noted taste differences connected to the terroir in a broad sense: geology, grape variety, climate, age of the vines, harvest date, vinification … But these co-factors are so variable and interdependent that they create a mystery. In the 2000s Claude Bourguignon put forward hypotheses concerning the role of anions and cations emanating from the bedrock made soluble by the roots and interfering via the enzymes on the taste of the wine – but from my point of view difficult to predict when you take into consideration the random action of the weather conditions of the year which also interferes on the soil. It is still for me a big mystery. An active mystery that is renewed every cycle. And if I tried to find answers in books it is because the root part buried in the soil give nothing to see. Perhaps it is a matter of living with this mystery and collecting the signs to interpret them …

You approach your production through the prism of vintage but your cuvées only remaining on lees for 15 to 18 months can’t legally wear the “vintage” label. You choose instead the label “LC” (Lot Consigné) followed by a “XX” representing the year of the harvest. This short time on lees is quite unique. Why this nonconformist approach?

I try to subject my wines in the cellar to the same interactions as the vines outside. If the oxygen from the soil is indispensable to the development of micro-organisms that, in turn, are essential for the acquisition of minerality, then I like to put the micro-organisms of the wine in contact with oxygen during the breeding period. It's quite staggering to notice this symmetry ratio of the biotope effect between vines and the cellar. We try to conserve all the potential of the grape so that the work of the wine is done as close as possible from its source. This greatly relativizes a hypothetical contribution of a prolonged maturation on lees in the absence of oxygen.

Meunier is your strength and fame. What are its virtues?

Meunier already has a defect – that of being a demanding grape variety in the vineyard. It requires a rigorous control of yields and an enormous work in green. A grape variety that is therefore not easy to work with. Then the relationship between wine and grape variety doesn't interest me. I don’t make an appellation wine from Meunier. It is the expression of a place that we are talking about and more precisely, Les Béguines. Let's leave the claim of grape varieties to the vineyards of the New World!

What specific leads are you following faced with the challenge of global warming?

The difficulty comes from the rooted character of the vine. Like all plants, the vine cannot move to feed itself or shelter itself to take the time to adapt. That’s the problem. Far more so if you add its perennial nature (the same roots for 65 years). Faced with this new climate situation, all the measures to adapt become difficult to anticipate and are less effective. We adapt in staggered phases all work pertaining to pruning; we make tillage choices; we invest in lighter equipment to be more reactive; we grope around on regulation of new pests (Drosophile). An aggravating fact is that in a production within an appellation there are a series of regulations inherited from a history that pained in rapidly evolve. The key then will lie in the adaptation and above all the speed at which human and non-human characters will adapt.

You’ve reached cult status in a shot amount of time. How are you living this notoriety?

This recognition came early but took some time. We were awarded the title “Vignerons Espoir” of 2002 by the Revue des Vins de France. In 2004 we made the cover with an in-depth editorial story in the Japanese magazine Winart by M. Tanaka. Then there was this beautiful article by Peter Liem with tasting notes in The World of Fine Wine. We first live it with humility because when you work with the living you know that everything can change qualitatively at an unforeseen moment. Then we experience it as an encouragement. The fact that this recognition is not late but recurrent since the early years allowed us to overcome the punches inherent in a winegrower's life. And lastly, with discernment. The fact that the critics are the analysis of people of a renown gives value and a sense. It’s important to distinguish between a critical analysis of a real journalistic work and the writing of a report/advertorial that doesn’t reveal the name of the writer even in specialized journals/magazines.

What makes you sparkle in your job?

When I was a young lad, my teacher would ask us to bring back from our environment leaves, fruits, things that could be observed, cut and drawn in class. It was “the lesson of the thing”.

This joy of observation, of discovery and of analysis has been with me all my life. The vineyard and wine work are first and foremost the art of observation. Besides one of my favorite poetry books is “Le Parti pris des Choses” by Francis Ponge – what an observation without lyricism, what a keen attention to details!

Is there a question you wish I had asked but did not?

I am turning 60 this year and I have been preparing for the future for some time now. My nephew joined four years ago. He was a station Chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant then when the pandemic hit, he envisioned another life. He is young and has always lived in Gueux, and the numerous moments spent at his grandmother’s at the foot of Les Béguines created a strong attachment. Like me, he was trained at the Lycée Viticole in Avize then in the vineyards. He loves his land, it’s evident He cultivates this priority with the most beautiful means: working with a horse. It’s a huge time and energy investment which highlights one vital element: you must be one with your vine. This transmission of knowledge is not the easiest for me. Not so much the transmission of ideas that we regularly practice with our clients, journalists, distributors, but rather the transmission of the right gesture, that is to say, once the idea is effectively applied, it has to become reality to generate a beautiful result.

For more information go to: https://champagnelacloserie.fr/en/