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Champagne Jean Vesselle, “Le Petit Clos” Grand Cru

Champagne, France 2005 (750mL)
$150.00
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Champagne Jean Vesselle, “Le Petit Clos” Grand Cru

There are 21 clos (a vineyard enclosed by stone walls) in Champagne, which makes them incredibly rare right out of the gate, but when it comes to Jean Vesselle’s “Le Petit Clos'' in Grand Cru Bouzy, ‘rare’ doesn’t even scratch the surface. 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 the staggering rarity of “Le Petit Clos.” Why? No more than three barrels of this tête de cuvée are ever produced because the entire vineyard is a mere .08 hectares—smaller than my backyard. 
Today’s limited 100% Pinot Noir is hand-harvested in baskets, carried over to their winery (the vineyard is essentially their courtyard), and pressed into three Champenois oak barrels. After bottling in 2006, the wine then rested in their cellar for well over 12 years, an astounding feat that few producers can match. Every long-aged release epitomizes the sublime power, vinosity, and breathtaking purity of Grand Cru Bouzy Pinot Noir and those properties were only magnified in the sun-soaked 2005 vintage. Most of today’s <1,000-bottle production vanishes the moment it leaves Vesselle’s cellar, and only a handful of Champagne connoisseurs ever get to taste it. The bottle we savored was number 338 of 925. What will yours be?
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 ration 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 “Cuvée Le Petit Clos.” 

During the heatwave of 2005, it was incredibly important to be monitoring vineyards at all times because one day could transform an optimally-ripe and balanced crop into overblown grapes devoid of tension. Luckily for Delphine, “Le Petit Clos is always only a few steps away, seeing as it’s literally in their front yard. 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 untouched in their cellar for over a dozen years. It was disgorged in October of 2018 with a light dosage of four grams per liter. 

Vesselle’s 2005 “Le Petit Clos” pours a straw-yellow with copper hues and reveals an ultra-fine mousse in the glass. Put simply, this Champagne is a complete guide on what to expect from the storied village of Bouzy. It’s Grand Cru Pinot Noir at its most inviting, vinous, and sublime. You’ll uncover nuanced aromas of currant, blood orange, cherry pit, black tea, bruised red apple, plum skin, damp roses, crushed chalk, underbrush, exotic spices, and smoky undertones. The palate is a broadly sculpted, mineral-heavy masterpiece that delivers a fusion of red fruit and savory earth. It’s simultaneously soft and multi-textural with a strong core of acidity that keeps your taste buds humming. This is what connoisseurs should always expect when opening a 15-year-old bottle of Grand Cru Pinot Noir! Serve in Burgundy stems around 50-55 degrees and enjoy over several hours. Want to hold onto a bottle or two? Go ahead—this will keep evolving over the next 5-10 years. Cheers!
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Country
France
Region
Champagne
Sub-Region
FranceMontagne de Reims - Bouzy Grand Cru
Soil
Chalk & Clay
Farming
Practicing Organic
Blend
Pinot Noir 100%
Alcohol
12.0
OAK
Vinified in Used French Barrels
TEMP.
55
Glassware
Burgundy Stems
Drinking
Now-2025+
Decanting
Optional
Pairing
Cold Smoked Salmon

France

Bourgogne

Beaujolais

Enjoying the greatest wines of Beaujolais starts, as it usually does, with the lay of the land. In Beaujolais, 10 localities have been given their own AOC (Appellation of Controlled Origin) designation. They are: Saint Amour; Juliénas; Chénas; Moulin-à Vent; Fleurie; Chiroubles; Morgon; Régnié; Côte de Brouilly; and Brouilly.

Southwestern France

Bordeaux

Bordeaux surrounds two rivers, the Dordogne and Garonne, which intersect north of the city of Bordeaux to form the Gironde Estuary, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is at the 45th parallel (California’s Napa Valley is at the38th), with a mild, Atlantic-influenced climate enabling the maturation of late-ripening varieties.

Central France

Loire Valley

The Loire is France’s longest river (634 miles), originating in the southerly Cévennes Mountains, flowing north towards Paris, then curving westward and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean near Nantes. The Loire and its tributaries cover a huge swath of central France, with most of the wine appellations on an east-west stretch at47 degrees north (the same latitude as Burgundy).

Northeastern France

Alsace

Alsace, in Northeastern France, is one of the most geologically diverse wine regions in the world, with vineyards running from the foothills of theVosges Mountains down to the Rhine River Valley below.

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