By Terry Theise
(Vilmart & Cie "Coeur de CuvĂ©e" Brut) ($139.00) The greatest young Champagne I tasted last year, and one of the greatest I’ve ever tasted, and oh dear me, whatever was he thinking making this wine from a famously terrible vintage? I remember when I visited in 2002, Laurent saying “We’re quite pleased with our ‘01s,” and I said “That makes exactly one of you,” and he asked “Are the others unhappy? No, we’re quite pleased with the quality.” It starts off smelling like new shoes and caramel. But man the palate is literally unbelievable, it has to be the best wine in Champagne in 2001. It isn’t large, and the finish is more a whisper than a song, but this chrome-brilliant silvery midpalate just sizzles in an unfathomable fluorescent buzz, washing into a kind of molten coldness, and with the second sip even the finish swells into a minty grip that actually rises vaporously into the soft palate. You need to borrow another guy’s brain to help you grasp the deep-orange neon silver miasma of this baby. A year later I see no reason to change my mind. I saw how the reviewers all liked the 2000 better; it was thicker and more obviously “great” and I love it too. But this wine! It is miraculously buoyant and soaring, but the legs stretch, the tendons expand in slippery energy, but the feet never leave the ground.2011 Champagne Catalog, 6/1/2011, (See more on Terry Theise Estate Selections...)