lundi 25 novembre 2019

Champagne Vilmart & Cie - Grand Cellier

Guide VERON des Champagnes 2019

(around 32 euros per bottle)

Sober and luxurious presentation.

Aspect:

Golden and brilliant.

Fine and dynamic bubbles.

Fine bead of foam.

Nose:

Radiant complexity, thanks to the long period between disgorgement and shipment.

The majority of Chardonnay (70%) immediately reveals its elegance with scents of apple and pear, and then of peach and apricot.

Generous aromas of pastries and gingerbread then take us, characteristic signs of 10 months of ageing of the base wines in oak casks and 3 years of ageing on laths of the bottles, before riddling and disgorgement.

Later, the Pinot Noir (30%) becomes more confident with heady fragrances of red and black fruits, delicately spicy.

Palate:

Lively and dense opening, definitely the signature of the old plots of vine (30 years old) in which the grapes were meticulously harvested by hand in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Beautiful vitality, enhanced by the tasty tension and highlighted by the radiant minerality and the ethereal effervescence.

We find again the red fruits at the end, underlined by a life-giving breath.

Very great length on the palate.

For this cuvée Grand Cellier, Laurent Champs, cellar master of the Champagne house Vilmart & Cie, was able to compose the inspired blending of varietals, terroirs and vintages, to sign a rare champagne, between finesse and reserved power.

To taste from aperitif to meal, with a duckling fillet caramelized with wild blackberries, for example. 

At the head of the Champagne house Vilmart & Cie since 1990, Laurent Champs cultivates his 11 hectares vineyard certified Ampélos and Haute Valeur Environnementale, without using chemical fertilizers, nor herbicide, nor insecticide. The Chardonnay (60%) and the Pinot Noir (40%) planted in the Premiers Crus of Rilly-la-Montagne and Villers-Allerand, carefully vinified with passage of the base wines in wood and stop of the malolactic fermentation, are the source of around 110,000 bottles per year of a range of highly expressive champagnes.

Champagne Vilmart & Cie
BP4 - 5 rue des Gravières
51 500 Rilly-la-Montagne
Tel.: +33 (0)3 26 03 40 01