NV Vilmart & Cie Grande Reserve Brut 1er Cru Champagne Magnum (1.5 L) Magnum

There are roughly 16,000 grape growers in Champagne. Most of them tend vines scattered across a dozen or more villages. Vilmart & Cie is different: their entire 11 hectares of Premier Cru sit within 800 meters of the winery in Rilly-la-Montagne, divided into just 12 parcels. Laurent Champs can walk to every vine he tends, and that is very much part of the point.

The house was founded in the late 1800s by Désiré Vilmart. Laurent, the fifth generation of his family to make Champagne here, has run the estate since 1989—farming from the start without herbicides, chemical fertilizers, or insecticides, building on methods his father introduced and refining them with the care that comes from deep familiarity with the land.

Rilly-la-Montagne sits on the cool northern flank of the Montagne de Reims, where chalk and clay soils produce wines of characteristic freshness and mineral tension. It is predominantly Pinot Noir country, which makes Vilmart’s vineyard profile a notable exception: 60% of their plantings are Chardonnay, grown on south and southeast-facing slopes in an area where the typical vineyard faces north or east.

Laurent’s winemaking philosophy can be captured in a phrase he uses often: “wine first, then Champagne.” Every base wine ferments and ages in large oak foudres for ten months. Malolactic fermentation is blocked entirely, preserving the natural malic acid that gives the wines their tension and mineral focus. Non-vintage Champagnes then spend three to four years on their lees before disgorgement.

The oak contributes texture and depth without imposing—Laurent uses large-volume foudres precisely to avoid overwhelming the fruit—while the retained acidity keeps the wines precise and built for the long haul.

The Grande Reserve is Vilmart’s entry cuvée: 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, from Premier Cru vines averaging 30 to 35 years of age, with reserve wines from the two preceding harvests worked into the blend for depth and consistency.

And magnums are among the rarer formats Vilmart produces. A magnum holds twice the wine against the same cork, which means slower oxidation, more gradual development, and a finer, more persistent mousse—and a longer window during which the wine is at its peak.