From: Montagne de Reims, Champagne, France
Varietals: 80% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir
Tasting Notes and Critical Acclaim: “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.” — Antonio GAlloni, Vinous Media, 96 points (March 2023)
“Fragrant, with wafts of lime blossoms and exotic cardamom, anise and saffron spices, this weaves a firm streak of racy acidity with a satiny texture and finely detailed notes of crushed blackberry, ripe yellow peach, blanched almond and a crackle of fleur de sel, which lingers on the lively, lasting finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Disgorged March 2022. Best from 2025 through 2033.” –Alison Napes, Wine Spectator, 94 points (December 2023)
Erin Lyman on the 2014 vintage: “Initial aromas are very complex and awake the senses. After a few moments, with much of delicacy, subtle notes of flowers and fresh fruit are married with more subtle lemony flavors. The nose is both elegant and powerful, which indicates a wine of great complexity and a beautiful harmony. Once in your mouth, flavors of butter, crème brûlée and spices blossom awaken taste buds. It is a gourmand and generous wine with an exceptional freshness. After several minutes of tasting, the complexity and the scarcity of this wine crescendo, with a dominant citrus fruit and some salinity on the finish: a real aromatic symphony.”
Pairing: This refined and complex Champagne calls for pairings with straightforward, well-made dishes with similarly luxurious texture and flavor. Caviar, lobster (see recipe below), scallop tartare, or foie gras will bring depth and a beautiful aromatic evolution.
Boiled Lobster
By Kay Chun
About. Many thanks to the importer, Skurnik Wines & Spirits, for the following information.
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. The first-run juice pressed from a due south section of 65-year-old ungrafted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines planted here go into this Coeur de Cuvée ("heart of the cuvée") bottling: Laurent's top wine. 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 a combination of smaller barrique and demi-muid for vintage wines like this one. 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.
Wine Notes. The 2015 Champagne Vilmart & Cie Coeur de Cuvée Brut Premier Cru is an extremely limited wine, made exclusively from the heart of the cuvée, just 1400 liters of the 2050 liters total—the purest of free-run juice from the year’s harvest. It’s composed of a blend of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir from Vilmart’s Blanches Voies vineyard, which is located in the Rilly-la-Montagne 1er Cru village. The vines here are an average of 55 years old, planted on limestone soils.
Malolactic fermentation was blocked during winemaking, and the still wine spent 10 months in barriques prior. Once in bottle, the wine spent 42 months on its lees and was disgorged in March of 2022.