Wine Advisor
Vilmart & Cie, Coeur de Cuvee 1er Cru Brut 2015
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Description
Pale gold in colour, highlighted with flecks of silver, followed by fine and elegant bubbles, creating a delicate and harmonious cord. On the nose, the primary aromas are vivid and biting with notes of white peach and fresh lemon, associated with a subtle iodized character. On the secondary aromas, there is a greater complexity and richness with fresh apricot aromas, pepper mint and almond cake. Once on your palate, it is characterized by a suave tension, followed by a pallette of citrus fruit offering a full expression of blood orange and candied lemon. Shortly after is appearing a sensation of lemon meringue pie. The finish is expressing a great minerality with a remarkable length of iodized notes.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2015 Brut Coeur de Cuvée is a pretty dense wine that belies its deceptively mid-weight structure. What surprises me most about the 2015 is how closed it is. In most years, especially warm years, Coeur de Cuvée is quite a bit more open and voluptuous, but the 2015 does not come across like that at all. Rather, it is super-classic in bearing, with tons of gravitas from the 60-year-old vines just waiting to emerge. There are non of the awkward herbal notes that penalize so many wines. Bright saline notes extend the finish effortlessly. The 2015 is a brilliant Coeur de Cuvée.
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
