Wine Spectator 93
"A vivid Champagne, offering richness married to restraint, creating a pleasing tension that frames flavors of ripe nectarine and slivered almond, accented by an aromatic skein of lime blossom, ground anise, ginger and saffron. Finely detailed in texture, with a lingering finish. Disgorged February 2019. Drink now through 2025.A.N.

Wine Advocate 92
"The Vilmart NV Grande Reserve represents a blend of relatively young vines of Chardonnay with around 20 Pinot Noir. These are from vintages 2009 and 2010, though the result displays a surprising degree of lees autolysis in the nose, joined by smoky and chalky nuances that come out more emphatically on the silken, finely effervescent palate. Suggestions of jellied red currant along with apple and lemon as well as a faint aura of barrel put me a bit in mind of Chassagne-Montrachet. This finishes with bursting brightness, ringing clarity, mouthwatering salinity, cheek-pinching piquancy, and consummate refreshment. It should fare deliciously for at least the one or two years. - Wine Advocate (Nov 2013)"

Wine Information:
Grand Cellier is 70 Chardonnay and 30 Pinot Noir from 2 parcels in Rilly-la-Montagne Les Hautes Grves & Les Basses Grves. Like all of Vilmart's cuvees, this wine does not go through malolactic fermentation and spends time in oak. For the NV wines, oak aging is in large cask from 500-2000 liter. The current disgorgement spent about 18 months sur latte and was disgorged in November of 2012.

Winery Information
Region: Montagne de Reims
Premier cru sites in Rilly-la-Montagne and Villers-Allerand
Total vineyard holdings: 11 hectares
Annual production: 8,500 cases
Vines: 60 chardonnay, 36 pinot noir, 4 pinot meunier

Vilmart & Cie (RILLY-LA-MONTAGNE)

Vilmart & Cie. traces its history back to 1890, when it was founded by Dsir Vilmart, and from the beginning, Vilmart & Cie. has always been a rcoltant-manipulant, making champagne exclusively from estate-owned vines. Since 1989 the estate has been in the hands of Laurent Champs, the fifth generation of the family to take the helm of the house.

The majority of Vilmart's 11 hectares of vines lie in Rilly-la-Montagne, although there are a few plots just over the border in the neighboring village of Villers-Allerand. Vilmart is a member of Ampelos, an organization that promotes organic and sustainable viticulture, and Champs has never used any herbicides or chemical fertilizers since taking over the estate. All of the vineyards are planted with cover crops and plowed, and Champs enjoys an additional advantage in that his parcels are relatively largeonly 12 different parcels over 11 hectaresmeaning that he is more protected from contamination by chemical treatments in neighboring plots.

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, Champagneguide.net

In the early days when I first approached Vilmart and started working with Laurent Champs, I had mixed emotions about some of the Champagnes. Please note what mixed emotions actually means. It doesnt mean I doubted the worthiness of the wines or thought they were mediocre. It means I had different opinions about different aspects of the wines. I was thrilled with some, intrigued with all, and wondered whether a couple were too oaky.

Earlier in his career, I think Laurent was flying blind on the matter of oak, and his recent Champagnes have wiselypresented a more integrated and elegant profile. Yet he is adamantly a vintner first, before he is a maker of Champagne: We do wine first, then afterward we do Champagne, he says. Every base wine, without exception, sees at least ten months in casks of varying size and newness. Once in a while theres a brief disconnect between fruit and wood immediately after disgorgement, but 2-3 years on the cork make for a dramatic metamorphosis. Matter of fact, Ive found Vilmart among the most food-friendly of all my Champagnes, because theyre so gracious, so vinous, so lordly in their carriage. Its clear to me Vilmart is a Champagne estate of unassailable consequence, a must-have for anyone Interested in the possibilities of this most suavely powerful and graceful of all wines. Casks are hardly the point anymore. Organic viticulture, (truly!) low yields, remarkable polish of fruit, and the deliberate patient pursuit of a vision of perfection make Laurent Champs estate a gemstone gleaming among the chalk.