NV Vilmart & Cie Cuvee Grande Reserve
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Tasting notes
Mainly Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay, the NV Champagne Premier Cru Grande Reserve Brut is bright, refreshing, and pure, with attractive fruity aromas and flavors of candied grapefruit, ripe pear, fresh flowers, and chalky earth. Medium-bodied, it’s approachable and refreshing, with a sunny, crystalline feel. It offers a refined, pinpoint mousse (which, on second tasting, is rounder and enhances its spice through the finish). It has nice purity and clean length. I love this for its freshness and would find it highly versatile for drinking over the next several years. This release is based on 2022, with reserve wines from 2020 and 2021, and was aged for 10 months in large oak barrels. It was disgorged in November 2024. Drink 2025-2035.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
With equal parts of the 2022 base vintage and reserve wines (from 2021 and 2020), the latest release of Vilmart & Cie’s NV Grande Réserve was disgorged in July 2024 with a dosage of six grams per liter. Heavily based on Pinot Noir and vinified in large foudres, some as old as 50 years, it offers up aromas of peach, ripe lemon and pear. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, with an expressive profile, laden with tangy acidity, it concludes with a long, expansive finish. Compared to Vilmart’s premium NV Grand Cellier, the Grande Réserve is a more generous, charming style of cuvée, which can be attributed to its powerful Pinot Noir component.
Empty bottle 840 g. 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay. Fermentation and ageing for 10 months in large oak foudres, with 15 months sur lattes. No malolactic conversion. Free SO 2 7 mg/l, total SO 2 60 mg/l. Vegan. Quite a colour and density. Dry finish but lots of interest and detail on the way there. Finesse is arguably not its strong point, but intrigue definitely is. Long and reverberant. GV (JR)
The NV Champagne 1er Cru Grande Reserve Brut is 70% Pinot Noir and the rest Chardonnay based on the 2021 vintage. Revealing a bright yellow hue, it’s a lovely entry to this range with aromas of orange custard, shortbread, strawberries, and fresh flowers. Medium-bodied, it fills the palate and has a rich, silky texture, a clean, citrus-noted finish, and a refined mousse that frames it beautifully. Drink over the next 8-10 years. It was disgorged in July 2023.