Description
Jean Vesselle, “Le Petit Clos” Grand Cru
As is tradition, the moment a rare new “Petit Clos” release lands, I immediately purchase one for personal consumption and check the back label. This time around, it read “244 sur 750.” Meaning, just 750 bottles of Jean Vesselle’s most beloved Grand Cru cuvée were made for the entire world, only a small fraction made it stateside, and I consumed #244. If “Le Petit Clos” means nothing to you, allow me to explain why this is one of the world’s most exclusive “clos” bottlings.
There are roughly two dozen “clos” (vineyards enclosed by stone walls) in Champagne, which makes them incredibly rare to begin with, but Vesselle’s “Petit Clos” in Grand Cru Bouzy might just be the rarest. The entire clos sits at .08 hectares so only three barrels of this legendary tête de cuvée can ever be produced. In 2009, every treasured, über-ripe Pinot Noir cluster was manually harvested in baskets, literally walked over to their winery, and pressed into three Champenois oak barrels. Once transferred into bottle, this wine was left to mature in the cold dark of their cellar for 12 years before disgorgement. In closing, only a tiny portion of Champagne’s cognoscenti will ever lay eyes on this richly textured masterwork, and far fewer will have the pleasure of enjoying it. No more than three bottles per person!
NOTE: We also received eight bottles of Vesselle’s 2006 Petit Clos with this order. Yes, only eight. One can be purchased here.
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 that mirrors 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.”
For Delphine, “Le Petit Clos” is always only a few steps away, as it’s literally adjacent to their courtyard. After a manual harvest, the grapes are pressed into three barrels—new, once-used, and 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 April of 2022 with a dosage of just under four grams. Every long-aged, exceedingly limited release always epitomizes the sublime power, vinosity, and purity of Bouzy Pinot Noir.
The newest release of “Petit Clos” boasts ripe, lush, creamy fruit thanks to the generously warm 2009 vintage. Once poured into all-purpose stems, you’ll notice a huge, frothy mousse that requires a full minute to settle. The nose erupts with candied lemon, brioche, wet rock, baked yellow apple, red pear, crème fraîche, nougat, vanilla bean, and exotic baking spices that soar on the richly textured, full-bodied palate. Creamy orchard fruits infused with atomized chalk dominate the remarkably fresh finish. Although 13 years old, this is not a bruised, mellow-fruited champagne—there’s enough energy and beautiful poise here to carry it through 2030. Cheers!
