Wine Advisor
Vilmart & Cie, Coeur de Cuvee 1er Cru Brut 2008
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Stephan Reinhardt
The 2008 Coeur de Cuvée Premier Cru Brut is a blend of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir from 55-years-old vines, whose must comes from the coeur de cuvée, so the very best part of the pressing. This 2008 was disgorged in March 2015 with eight grams per liter. The wine opens with intense and ripe, highly elegant and Chardonnay-driven fruit with intense lemon, hazelnut and chalk flavors. It's rich and elegant on the palate, very firm and mineral, with great length, complexity and a string of mineral expression. This wine has great, great ageing potential. So beautifully fresh and mineral, so firm, fresh and elegant. Great finesse and complexity, this Champagne is very long and full of tension and finesse.
About the Producer
Vilmart & Cie looks back at a long history of grape growing and winemaking. It was founded as récoltant manipulant house in 1890 by Désiré Vilmart, in the village of Rilly-la-Montagne. Today, Laurent Champs, the fifth generation of the family, oversees the domaine. The estate is located in the western end of the Grand Montagne and most of the holdings here are in the Premier Cru of Rilly-La-Montagne with a few small blocks in neighboring Villers-Allerand. Laurent farms 10 parcels over 11 hectares, an anomaly as most estates have many small parcels. This allows Laurent to farm with organic methods; his father practiced biodynamic viticulture and Laurent continues in this vein. Like many of the villages in this area, Rilly faces north. This is the same exposition of Verzenay and Mailly Grand Crus, for example. However, the holdings of Vilmart are in a privileged place. Laurent has a large block of vineyards on a south facing hillside on the other side of the village, in the direction of Montbré, which rises to the north. This vineyard is called Blanches Voies, a due south section of 65-year-old ungrafted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines here go into Laurent’s Coeur de Cuvée, his top wine as well as Grand Cellier d’Or, his vintage wine and a new single site Blanc de Blancs, called Blanches Voies. Vilmart’s other parcels are in the south west facing vineyard of Hautes Grèves, another vineyard with both Chardonnay and Pinot planted. Laurent ferments and ages all his wines in oak: large 2200–5500-liter foudre and demi-muid for the NV wines and smaller barrique as well as demi-muid for vintage wines. Malolactic fermentation is always blocked, giving the wines a crisp acidic structure coupled with the richness of the fermentation and aging regimen. Vilmart’s wines are at once ripe and structured, perfectly walking the line between hedonism and austerity, expertly balanced, and always exceptional. “Vilmart & Cie. is not only one of the greatest grower-estates in Champagne, but one of the finest Champagne producers of any type in the region. ” Peter Liem
