This is good feedback, and a good take. Dunno if you were on the discussion y/day for the Zoom but this topic I raised with Thomas Champs. They do dosage trials every year with the new wines to be bottled, which he described as giving real thought to the levels chosen. Given the acidity of the wines and how that shows with their fruit (as a corollary, the pH on their wines is often right around the 3.0 mark, which is pretty low), they just feel that the wines are in best balance with the levels of dosage they use. The exception is pretty much their BdB special cuvee, which is at 4 grams but he alluded to subsequent vintages coming that are even at 2 gms, even a single gram. We laughed about that, as I thought, hell, why not just go to Brut Zero. @ToddFrench found that funny!
Thanks Frank. Busy time of year for me and I had to skip the zoom, but I plan on watching the recording.
Great. I believe you will enjoy it. We had a good time y/day doing that 90 mins with him.
I wonder if thereâs a bit of bottle variation going on with this vintage. My first bottle a few months ago was quite good and didnât experience any greenness either. I wasnât able to drink during yesterdayâs zoom but had a craving to open a Vilmart last night. This post inspired me to try a second bottle of the â15.
The first couple of hours wasnât very expressive but the nose eventually opened up to beautiful familiar notes. However the palate didnât match- under ripe strawberries and raspberry that never fully opened up vs ripe strawberries with a hint of peach and creamy pastry that I got with the first. Itâs wasnât bad by any means but different.
Matt, I just know that locally (and certainly by me) we have made a concerted effort to understand that wine. Even to the extent of retasting it multiple times. 2 notes below, to include the Grand Cellier dâOr from 2015. Just something seems off to me for that vintage. Of note, I do like the 2015 Coeur de Cuvee.
- 2015 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Grand Cellier d'Or - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru (2/26/2025)
Vilmart Dinner--a look at the 2015s, with some other Vilmart goodies for contrast (Foretti's in Corona Del Mar): June 2019 disgorgement. 80% Chard and 20% Pinot Noir, with about 7-8 gms of dosage. This started off tangy and citrusy, with orange flesh. Aroma of caramel and what my notes say as bourbon barrel, so I think I was trying to say wood. This bottle showed a heavier feel and what I felt like was out of balance. Hard to say that about something from Vilmart and this is the first time I have found the 2015 (both 2 previous bottles seemed fine to me) not to my liking, and certainly not to the pedigree of what Grand Cellier d'Or should be. - 2015 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Premier Cru Rosé Emotion - France, Champagne, Champagne Premier Cru (2/26/2025)
Vilmart Dinner--a look at the 2015s, with some other Vilmart goodies for contrast (Foretti's in Corona Del Mar): This bottle was the inspiration for doing last night's broader Vilmart tasting. We wanted to check in on this Emotion, and do the other 2015s for perspective. Disgorged February 2022, 60% Chard and 40% Pinot Noir, with 7 gms of dosage. I have had 2 previous bottles of 2015 Emotion, and I struggled with the wine on both occasions, too. So, last night affirmed that I just am having a hard time with this vintage of it. Creamy raspberry, lime zest, and kinda candied to me. In truth, this is better with more chill on the wine than less. In sum, it just seems heavy and out of balance for me. Spicy but not in the way I want from Emotion. And of note, we did the 2012 and 2013 Emotions alongside the 2015, which further for me illuminated how far off the 2015 really is from those two wines.
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100% PN, no Meunier. I got mixed up in the Rilly (region) numbers and the Vilmart numbers. Edited and amended.
Vilmart and Egly are my go to NV bubbles. Just grabbed some Vilmart marked down 25%. Of course I was buying it when it was $50 years ago (Thank you Terry Theise for putting these on my radar).