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Tasting with Laurent Champs of Vilmart |  (197 page views) | | 5/25/2022 (In Rilly la Montagne) |
| | - N.V. Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grande Réserve - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged July 2021. This is the Pinot Noir dominant cuvee, with the remainder of Chardonnay at 30%. This bottle was from the 2019 base, with reserve wine of 2018 and 2017. I may underestimate the GR cuvee as I usually just skip buying this and focus on the rest of the range but I gotta say that this is a value play that works and maybe I should start buying the wine. Spicy with crisp apple and the structure coming from the saline of the plots. Solid.
- N.V. Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grand Cellier Brut - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
I missed the disgorgement here, and this is of course the inverse of the Grand Reserve's composition, too. 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, from plots again around the Rilly village. This is the 2018 base, with the reserves of 2017 and 2016. Tangerine, spicy ginger, green apple, honeyed pear and lots of intensity from the structure and salinity. Terrific, and a good value if one doesn't want to make the step up in price for Grand Cellier d'Or or Coeur de Cuvee.
- 2017 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grand Cellier d'Or - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged April 2021. 70% Chard and 30% Pinot Noir. Hell, I just am getting my 2016s in the US so it was cool to get a shot at taking a look at the 2017. For some of the talk that has been made about the vintage, it's not fair to assign that perception broadly. This vintage of GCdO is just fine, with spicy citrus, lots of orange, lime and a linear perception I got, meaning not so much opulent as it is focused.
- 2014 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Coeur de Cuvée - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged March 2021. I haven't got an offer yet on the 2014 so this is for me a treat to get to taste this out ahead of the purchase. Hell, I'd just buy a bunch of this anyway as I do each vintage o/f CdC but at least now I have some intel as to what is inside the bottle. 80% Chard and 20% Pinot, with the usual 6 years or so on the lees. Damn, this is good and I starred my notes. There is both richness and breadth here. Mandarin/tangerine, lime skin, yellow apple with a powerful core of energy and freshness. If my notes bear out here (I do like to taste things a few times before I gush over something as confirmed to be a real winner), this may end up going into that level of great. We'll see but let's color this first experience with the 2014 as fantastic.
- 2012 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Blanc de Blancs Les Blanches Voies - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged June 2020, so one can see how much time this cuvee stays on the lees, and inside a special cooperage that is quite rare, with only 50 or so barrels of this wood produced, in part sold to Vilmart if I have the story correct. That wood imparts a cinnamon note to me. 100% Chardonnay. The flavors? Pear, lemon pith, powerful saline and freshness. Yeah, this is good and I believe I need to taste this cuvee a few more times before I judge it but I have to say that I still preferred the 2014 Coeur de Cuvee that I tasted just prior.
- 2013 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Rosé Emotion - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged April 2020. I had bought several of these, taken delivery but had yet to open one so I appreciated being able to taste it. 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay. This vintage of Emotion has a richness in the mouth, a fullness. Strawberry, zesty limes and raspberry with the richer red fruit tones showing. I kept coming back to a perception of a freshly sliced, ripe strawberry. Delicious.
- N.V. Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grand Cellier Brut - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
From the oenotheque. A base of 2010, with reserves of 2007-2009. In essence, this is an aged Grand Cellier, with nearly a decade post-disgorgement. What a treat to drink. Density here, with crushed pear, honeyed tangerine, green apple. Refreshing with some residual structure, with the acid and fruit remaining in balance. Grand Cellier can age!
- 2006 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Coeur de Cuvée - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru
Disgorged July 2013. Laurent, being the attentive and considerate soul that he is, remembered how much I am enamored with the 2006. And, of the heart that he moves from, he blinded me with this wine from the oenotheque. Man, this is such a great wine. Good color remains, delicious, still honeyed and rich yet in really perfect balance. My gut tells me this is entering the prime drinking window. I still have one bottle in the cellar, a wine I will cherish and open for the right occasion.
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