After a dozen years of undisturbed aging, most of Jean Vesselle’s 80-case “Petit Clos” unicorn production vanishes the moment it leaves their cellar. Only a lucky few ever set eyes on it. So, after landing, tasting, and selling through our small ‘05 stash back in January, we made sure to be first in line for their even-more-tightly allocated 2007 release. We’ve been guarding it closely over the last two months and after savoring bottle 263 out of 960 (your unique number will be on the back label), we decided waiting any longer would be foolish. Take advantage while you can because this is one of the world’s most exclusive Grand Cru “
clos” bottlings. Read on to discover why...
There are ~21
clos (a vineyard enclosed by stone walls) in Champagne, which makes them incredibly rare right out of the gate. I’m sure you’re familiar with blockbuster bottlings such as “Clos d’Ambonnay,” “Clos du Mesnil,” and “Clos de Goisses,” but even they can’t hold a candle to “Le Petit Clos” in Grand Cru Bouzy. Why? No more than three barrels of this
tête de cuvée are ever produced because the entire vineyard is .08 hectares! Every cluster of Pinot Noir is hand-harvested in baskets, walked over to their winery—the vineyard is essentially Jean Vesselle’s front yard—and pressed into three Champenois oak barrels. Following, the wine rests in their cellar for a staggering 12 years before disgorgement. Every long-aged, exceedingly limited release epitomizes the sublime power, vinosity, and purity of Grand Cru Bouzy Pinot Noir.
Anyone who loves great Champagne, and Pinot Noir, recognizes Bouzy as ground zero for the region’s most profound expressions of the variety, with a star-bright constellation of producers that includes Pierre Paillard, Benoît Lahaye, Camille Savès, André Clouet, and Paul Bara. The Vesselle surname is attached to several different properties within Bouzy, which can get confusing, but Delphine and David Vesselle have distinguished themselves by producing some of the most unique bottlings of all. The family’s 15 hectares of vineyards are planted to 90% Pinot Noir and 10% Chardonnay, a ratio which mirrors that of Bouzy as a whole. Across the entire Vesselle lineup, Pinot Noir is the star, made vividly apparent by today’s rarefied, 100% Pinot Noir “Le Petit Clos.”
For Delphine, “Le Petit Clos” is always only a few steps away, seeing as it’s literally beside their courtyard. After a manual harvest, the grapes were pressed into three barrels—one new, one once-used, one twice-used—from the forests of Champagne. The resulting wine went into bottle sans malolactic fermentation and then aged on lees in their cellar for a dozen years. It was disgorged in late October of 2019 with a dosage of just under four grams.
Some of you were, or still are, the lucky owners of Vesselle’s 2005 “Le Petit Clos,” so today’s 2007 will be the most enjoyable and profound study on vintage influence. Both are full-bodied, vinous powerhouses, but whereas the ‘05 was openly broad, rich, and sublime, the ‘07 has more energy, lift, and overall finesse. Of course, it depends on your taste preference, but I’ll take today’s version nine out of ten times. The ability to be simultaneously integrated and lively is something I’ll never tire of in maturing Champagne. You have to remember, we’re dealing with a 13-year-old bottle here, and it’s showing zero fatigue/oxidation despite being in the middle of a marathon—yes, I do believe this will be evolving beautifully on its 26th birthday.
In the glass, it pours a deep yellow with copper hues and really starts coming out of its shell with exposure to air and the right temperature, so make sure (1) the balloon stems are out, (2) service is around 55 degrees, and (3) the wine has had about five minutes to relax in the glass. If you’re partial to a more vinous style of Champagne, I would even recommend a brief decant or a number of vigorous swirls to ‘86’ some of the carbonation. Either way, it slowly unfurls with intoxicating notes of red apple, red currant, bruised apricot, Moro blood orange, citrus curd, brioche, crushed chalk, underbrush, honeysuckle, roasted hazelnuts, rose petal, and exotic spices. The palate embraces you with a full-flavored, richly textured profile that radiates with pulverized chalk and savory undertones. It’s a stunning experience that continues unfolding and revealing further complex, energetic layers as it reacts to the world outside of the bottle. The Vesselles have done it yet again with this iconic Grand Cru Champagne!
