| Brand | Vilmart & Cie |
| Appellation | Champagne, France |
| Vintage | 2012 |
| Oak Treatment | French Oak |
| Aging | more than 36 months |
| Total Varietal Composition % | 100% Chardonnay |
Product details
Champagne Vilmart & Cie is a family-run Champagne house embodying the essence of Champagne craftsmanship and tradition. The 2012 ranks among the best vintages of all time.
This Les Blanches Voies cuvée is made from a parcel - whose name it bears - planted exclusively with 60-year-old Chardonnay (it's, therefore, a Blanc de Blancs), in the commune of Rilly La Montagne, a village classified as Premier Cru. The grapes are harvested by hand and vinified in 228 L oak barrels, without malolactic fermentation, for a further ten months. After bottling, they are aged for 7 years on fine lees, before being disgorged and given a dosage of 4 g/L. Only 2900 bottles were produced.
La robe of this Champagne is a pretty straw yellow with pale green highlights. The nose offers a harmonious bouquet of citrus fruits, yellow lemon, lime, pink grapefruit, and kumquat, coated with pineapple and green apple, and supported by warmer notes of bourbon vanilla and toasted hazelnuts due to vinification in new barrels. On the palate, vanilla, and hazelnut are immediately present, closely followed by the sweetness of apricot and ripe white pear. The racy, saline finish offers an elegant chalky feel and some fresh hints of honeysuckle, like a "sensual minerality".
This Blanc de Blancs Les Blanches Voies 2012 from Vilmart & Cie is perfect to accompany the demanding Osciètre caviar, but try it with pan-fried milk-fed veal sweetbreads with morels, it's a magical moment.
