Represented by Laurent Champs & Thomas Champs

Attending:
New York City

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 (pictured), the fifth generation of the family to take the helm of the house.

The majority of Vilmart's 11 hectares of vines lie in Rilly-la-Montagne, although there are a few plots just over the border in the neighboring village of Villers-Allerand. Vilmart is a member of Ampelos, an organization that promotes organic and sustainable viticulture, and Champs has never used any herbicides or chemical fertilizers since taking over the estate. All of the vineyards are planted with cover crops and plowed, and Champs enjoys an additional advantage in that his parcels are relatively large—only 12 different parcels over 11 hectares—meaning that he is more protected from contamination by chemical treatments in neighboring plots.

All of Vilmart's wines are fermented and aged in oak: foudres for the non-vintage wines (casks ranging in size from 2,200 to 5,500 liters), and 225-liter barrels for vintage-dated ones, although Champs has recently begun to also use 600-liter demi-muids.

Information courtesy of Peter Liem's ChampagneGuide.net ©