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When Reputation Dwarfs Supply
Prevost Les Béguines Extra Brut (2012)
This is a difficult offer to write. With every word I write, I get increasingly worried that this will sell out and become a huge mess.
With each passing year, Prevost blows up more and more. The simple fact is that they are undeniably great wines. Basically, people taste them and immediately go searching.
And there lies the issue. He only has 2.2ha. And his reputation dwarfs the supply. Every year it gets worse. It goes without saying that finding enough quantity for an offer was really difficult.
The rise of Jérôme Prévost is an unlikely story, especially in the rarefied world of Champagne. In 1987, at age 21, he inherited his grandmother's 2.2 hectares of old-vine Pinot Meunier in Gueux, an obscure area in the northwest of Montagne de Reims. For over 10 years he simply sold off the grapes. Until in 1998, when his friend Anselme Selosse convinced him to start making his own wines.
In Prevost's Gueux, you find unique soils. Champagne's famous chalk soils are buried deep under a mix of sand and calcareous clay, laden with sea fossils. Something really special happens to Meunier here. Prevost endows Meunier with a regal, mineral core. The power, the earthiness of Meunier is turned into something rigorously detailed, fine and saline. The minerality on the 2012 is super-deep, cut and clear.
I'm going to wrap this up. There are few Champagne producers as in demand as Prevost and few who are more deserving of their cult status. Please give us your ideal order and we'll try our best.
To order, reply to offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits