It is fascinating how a wine often resembles its maker. To me, this couldn’t be closer to the truth than with the Champagnes of Vilmart & Cie. Fifth-generation winegrower Laurent Champs is quietly spoken, intellectual and reflective, and his wines carry an innate harmony and precision similar to the man himself. Instead of possessing a rockstar-like ego, Laurent Champs modestly insists that a winemaker must be ‘patient and humble’. Although, if the brand’s website is anything to go by, he does possess a bit of a poetic affinity with winemaking: ‘My heart and mind are the soul of my wine’.
No overnight success, Vilmart’s ascent to grower Champagne fame has taken several generations of relentless work. Following in his forefathers’ footsteps, Laurent Champs, 55, has shied away from revolution but embraced constant, gradual evolution. In his era at the helm since 1989, a certain style has persisted yet quality has consistently risen. Each viticultural and winemaking step has been perfected to the slightest detail. However, while continuously evolving, in some aspects the Vilmart & Cie team remain traditionalists. The house, for example, continues to use a traditional wooden Cocquard vertical press and keeps on hand-riddling its vintage-tier cuvées.
Read more: The Grower Champagne Report 2024
The picturesque village of Rilly-la-Montagne on the northern side of the Montagne de Reims has been the home of the Vilmart vigneron family for generations. Back in 1890, when grower production was rare, Désiré Vilmart commenced bottling under the family name. Over the course of generations the Champagne vineyards have been fragmented into smaller and smaller plots. Vilmart, however, has the entirety of its sizeable 11-hectare estate within an 800m radius from the winery. Equally unique, their vineyards come in large blocks with their premium site, Les Blanches Voies, comprising five hectares. Vilmart’s vineyards are split between two fine premier cru villages, Rilly-la-Montagne (80%) and Villers-Allerand (20%), and it is easy to imagine the positive factors such proximity provides. Close supervision of the vineyards is integral to a grower such as Vilmart, who has long eschewed the use of chemical fertilisers, herbicides, and insecticides. When treatments are needed, the vigneron is never far away, which may well be one of the reasons why Vilmart consistently excels in challenging years.
Another success factor might lie in the mix of grapes championed by this particular grower. Vilmart’s location on the Montagne de Reims is known for Pinot Noir production, yet the family chose to focus on Chardonnay early on. Today, 60% of their vineyards grow Chardonnay when the village average remains under 30%. Such Chardonnay dominance in the blends contributes to rare elegance in the wines.
Meticulous use of oak is one of the Vilmart hallmarks, as all the wines are born in wooden vessels. Large oak vats are in use for maturation of all its non-vintage Champagnes, while the vintage Champagnes are born in 228-litre Burgundy barrels aged between one and six years. Those who do not appreciate notable oaky tones – or who are not patient enough to age vintage cuvées long enough for the oak to completely marry with the fruit – will enjoy the pure and pristine non-vintages. At the other end of the Vilmart range lies the built-to-last Coeur de Cuvée, with its clearly but subtly oak-lined style that shines with additional time on cork.
The combination of perfectly ripened, Chardonnay-driven fruit, brisk acidity and seamlessly integrated oaky tones create a disarmingly polished and precise house style
A great range of lees-ageing times are employed across its cuvées, from two to eight years, which further contributes to the singular character of each of the house’s clearly positioned Champagnes. Overall, Vilmart wines age particularly well. The vintage cuvées typically bloom at around seven-to-nine years post-disgorgement when kept in ideal conditions. Equally, the late-disgorged Oenothèque bottles, that the house releases in small quantities, are testament to the wines’ pedigree.
Another essential ingredient of the house style and a further contribution to the wines’ ageworthiness is that Vilmart retains the natural malic acid of the wines by blocking malolactic fermentation. The combination of perfectly ripened, Chardonnay-driven fruit, brisk acidity and seamlessly integrated oaky tones create a disarmingly polished and precise house style, clearly tailored to the master’s taste.
Despite having been born into a winegrower family, working in Champagne wasn’t a childhood dream for Laurent Champs. ‘I wanted to be a racing driver or a pianist,’ Champs says of his two rather polar-opposite childhood dreams. But finally, wine won him over. ‘You fall in love with this job,’ he reflects.
Since he wasn’t forced into the family business, Champs chose not to apply any pressure to his children to continue the family legacy either. Despite this, his 27-year-old son Thomas, who originally ventured off on a sports-oriented career path, has recently joined the company and since 2020 has been making wines alongside his father. What will Thomas bring to the table in the Vilmart succession plan? ‘Improving quality is always the object’, says Thomas Champs. Patience and humility clearly run in the family veins. The sixth generation is getting ready to take the baton.
