(80% chardonnay and 20% pinot noir; aged for 53 months on its lees and disgorged in December of 2011; this was tasted from a magnum): Light, bright gold. Smoky, intensely perfumed aromas of pear, toasted bread, sweet butter, honeysuckle and dusty minerals. At once rich and energetic, offering palate-staining orchard fruit flavors and enlivening lemon zest and ginger flourishes. The smoky note repeats on the finish, which shows outstanding clarity, energy and length.

The 2006 Grand Cellier d'Or (magnum) is a wine of both structure and nuance. Ethereal, floral aromatics reminiscent of the 2008 are married to the textural silkiness that recalls the 2007 in a Champagne loaded with personality and class. Today, the 2006 is naturally quite young, but it promises to drink well for many years. In short, the 2006 is a model of pure elegance. The Grand Cellier d'Or is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. This bottle was disgorged in March 2014. Dosage is 8 grams per liter, a little less in magnum than is the custom here in standard bottles.

-- Antonio Galloni

– vinous.com, May 2014

Tasted from magnum because that’s how all of it was disgorged at this late date, the Vilmart 2006 Brut Grand Cellier d’Or leads with high-toned herbal extracts, frangipane, and maritime intimations of salt, alkali, and chalk, its polished, almost buttery palate preserving upmost transparency of white peach and lemon to those mineral elements, but also featuring wonderful and unusual sources of richness in the form of briny-sweet oyster liquor and slow-roasted, subtly caramelized parsnips. It finishes with superb length and salivary gland stimulation, and ought to prove thrilling to follow over the next half dozen or so years. If a visit with the articulate and passionately quality-conscious Laurent Champs – or even “just” the tasting of his wines – doesn’t leave you inspired about the future of Champagne, then I don’t know what that would take. I can recall having been slightly disconcerted at the impression left by oak on some of the wines I tasted from Vilmart in the younger Champs’ early days in charge here, but recent wines are a model of how to integrate wood and Champagne which, granted, is made much easier by the fact that most of Vilmart’s wine nowadays sojourn in large Alsace-style foudres that Champs has been amassing for long enough that there is little (if any) overt, resinous “oakiness” to extract. Rather, we have the same sort of subtle influence – here too, with wine that doesn’t “do malo” – as you can experience at many a top, tradition-minded Riesling address. And even the minority Vilmart wine that sees smaller barrels or a bit of new wood is by no means overly marked by that stay. No advocate of low dosage for its own sake, Champs’ wines tend to harbor 8-10 grams of residual sugar that is almost invariably well-judged, lending support without overt sweetness. It’s worth bearing in mind that Rilly is hardly the most prestigious among Champagne’s premier cru-rated villages, and were it not for Vilmart – only a small share of whose acreage spills over into neighboring Villers-Allerand – we would be largely ignorant of this terroir’s solo potential. (The classifications themselves were rendered from the perspective of value as blending components.) I tasted most of the Vilmart wines reviewed here twice – once in June, and once in September – and have amalgamated by tasting notes where applicable. Importer:Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300