Blend: 70% Chardonnay & 30% Pinot Noir
 
94 Points Wine Spectator
A sculpted Champagne, rich but still elegant, with well-honed acidity and a panoply of flavors set on the raw silklike mousse. Delivers grilled macadamia nut and biscuit, white cherry and nectarine fruit, crystallized honey, lime blossom, star anise and smoke accents. Long, salty finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Disgorged January 2023. Drink now through 2033.
 
93 Points Gismondi on Wine
Though technically not a Grower Champagne (RM) due to Vilmart & Cie sourcing some grapes from around their Rilly-la-Montagne home base, they are certainly in the same authentic, hands-on, small-scale league. It is a 70/30 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir cuvée from 30 year old vines (not to be mistaken with their Grand Reserve, which reverses the grapes in the mix) that has spent ten months in a blend of oak foudre and barrel on the lees (no malolactic fermentation) before heading to bottle for secondary ferment over 30 months. My bottle was disgorged in February 2022 with 7 g/L. It's peculiar to have such a high proportion of Chardonnay in Pinot Noir-dominant Montagne de Reims, though 60% of their grapes are Chardonnay, which often yields these wines a natural elegance. Perfumed lemon, toothsome meringue, crunchy green apple sails along the slender frame, with a lemony brace pinning in the sides, finishing with a chalky grip. 
 
Winemaker Notes
Vilmart is on the Burgundian end of the Champagne spectrum. Older examples of his top wines come to taste a lot like a mature Chevalier-Montrachet with fermentation and aging in barrels. But unlike a true C-M Vilmart blocks the malos, retaining great mineral tension. Aside from their rosé, the wines are dominated by Chardonnay—and not the pencil-lead Chardonnay of the Côte des Blancs, but the more generous Chard that you get on the Montagne de Reims where the black grapes tend to be more dominant.
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. Coming from the northern region of Champagne called Montagne de Reims, this Premier Cru Brut NV Cuvée offers tiny bubbles and deep notes of citrus fruit and toast with a long, satisfying finish on the palate. It is a delicious Champagne that drinks far more expensive than its respective price. Proprietor Laurent Champs can be counted on for wines of extraordinary class and elegance. Vilmart & Cie. traces its history back to 1890, when it was founded by Désiré Vilmart, and from the beginning, Vilmart & Cie. has always been a récoltant-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. They are differentiated by the high percentage of Chardonnay in their vineyards. "All of the wines are fermented in oak, although you would hardly know that tasting the wines." - Antonio Galloni