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Les Béguines
When Jérôme Prévost‘s mother inherited a vineyard of about 1.5 hectares in 1987, nobody in the family really knew what to do with it. At the time, it was not at all customary to cultivate one‘s own champagne. You sold the grapes to the so called négociants, large, well-known houses, or Wine-grower’s associations. They had a great demand for grapes, because most of the houses even today still do not have enough space of their own to cover the demand. Since the Champagne area is very limited, and despite a boom that has been going on for many years the surfaces have not increased and the purchase of grapes is common in this area. The owners of vineyards get more for their grapes per kilogramme than in almost any other growing region in the world. In 1987 prices were not quite as high, but business was still pro table. So, the 21 year old Jérôme decided to lease his mother‘s 1.5 acres in order to maintain the vines of this small location, Les Béguines, and sell the grapes. At rst, this was the best way for him to escape from the school he hated and to build something of his own. For ten years he sold his grapes, served his military service, spent some time at wine school, but soon left because he didn‘t think he was learning anything - and anyway, he would much rather drink champagne. During this time he met however some other champagne- crazy young wine makers who were champagne fanatics, and similarly disposed. They founded the Valoriser association, and Prévost decided to learn winemaking. He met the winemaker Anselme Selosse in Avize in the Côte des Blancs, the two got on well and Prévost was apprenticed to him. At this time, Selosse had already become famous with a new style of champagne, and he was one of the few wine-growers who dared to market his own wines in the 1970s. In 1998, Prévost‘s rst vintage was born, which he called Les Béguines after the vineyard of the same name. Since then, the wine, which acquired a rosy-coloured brother named facsimile over time, has become one of the most sought-after champagnes in the world.
Pinot Meunier
What happened, then, in Selosse‘s cellar? Prévost, the sophisticate whose small stone house called La Closerie is enriched with all kinds of objects, drawings and his own photographs, had hit a contemporary nerve. At that time, there was a change afoot in the champagne world, which
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