Denser and more compact than its 2019 counterpart, the NV Extra Brut Les Béguines LC 20 reveals inviting aromas of pear, confit citrus, mirabelle plum and spices, followed by a medium to full-bodied, layered and concentrated palate that's vinous and sapid, built around chalky structure and concluding with a penetrating finish. While it can be approached now, a few years' patience will pay dividends. -William Kelley for The Wine Advocate. 

Jérôme Prévost farms just over two hectares of old-vine Pinot Meunier in the village of Gueux, where the soils are a millefeuille of calcareous sands and clays. Working with a variety that's often sneered at, in a village few had heard of and with terroirs that are far removed from the clay-chalk stereotype that dominates discussion of Champagne, Prévost's tiny estate, La Closèrie, nonetheless produces some of the region's most sought-after wines. Prévost started making his wine in Anselme Selosse's cellar with the 1998 vintage, moving into his own facility in 2003. He harvests late—something that's essential if Pinot Meunier is to have character—and ferments his wine in barrel. Like Selosse, he doesn't top up his barrels while the vins clairs mature, so they often develop a light "voile" or veil of yeasts that lends subtle biologically aged characteristics of sotolon to his wines—though those qualities are much less pronounced than they are in Selosse's wines, it's worth noting. "I wouldn't do that if I were making still wines," he explains, "but I think of the second fermentation in bottle as being like a 'furnace' that enables one to remodel a wine. The base wine may be tired after a year in barrel without topping up, but the fermentation in bottle gives it new life." Dosage is minimal, and Prévost says that in principle he likes working in a non-dosé because "it makes me uncomfortable—it doesn't forgive any faults; there's nowhere to hide." Powerful but fine-boned and immensely characterful, these are some of my favorite wines in the region, and while they've become incredibly hard to find, I encourage readers to try them.