Can you visit Vilmart & Cie in Rilly-la-Montagne?

Yes — but only by appointment, and you should treat it as one. This is a small family grower, not a big-house visitor centre with a tour desk, so there's no walk-in cellar door. What sets it apart is that Vilmart is more open than most estates of its rank: come as a serious taster and you'll see the cellar, the barrels, and taste across the range. Arrange the slot in advance and confirm with the estate before you build a day around it.

What is Vilmart's Coeur de Cuvée?

The bottle that made Vilmart's name abroad, and a benchmark for what a small grower can do. It's drawn only from the heart of the first, gentlest pressing of the oldest vines, fermented in oak and held back for years before release. Chardonnay-dominant, deep, and slow to unwind — a wine you buy for the cellar, not for Friday night.

What makes Vilmart different from other growers?

Oak and Chardonnay. Where most of Champagne ferments in stainless steel, Vilmart works in wood — big casks and barrels — and was doing it long before the current fashion. That gives the wines a broad, vinous texture closer to fine white Burgundy than to light aperitif fizz. And though it sits on the Montagne de Reims, deep Pinot Noir country, its top wines lean on Chardonnay. On this hillside, that's the opposite of the crowd.

Is Vilmart grower Champagne?

Yes, in the fullest sense. Vilmart is a récoltant-manipulant — the small 'RM' on the label — which means it makes Champagne only from grapes it farms itself around Rilly-la-Montagne, rather than buying fruit to blend at scale like the grandes marques. Under Laurent Champs the vines are farmed with an increasingly organic hand.

Vilmart & Cie

Ask serious Champagne drinkers to name the grower they measure the others against, and Vilmart comes up fast. It's a family estate in the Premier Cru village of Rilly-la-Montagne, on the Montagne de Reims, and it makes Champagne that drinks less like fizz and more like a great white wine that happens to have bubbles. Barrel-fermented. Chardonnay-led. Built to age. The top cuvées are allocation wines that vanish the moment they land — which is exactly why you want to know how the house works before you go chasing a bottle.

Désiré Vilmart founded it in 1890, and it has stayed in one family for five generations. The current custodian is Laurent Champs — a trained decorative painter who took over the cellar and turned a good grower into a great one. The estate sits in the middle of the village, ringed by the parcels it farms and vinifies, increasingly by organic methods. No grand façade. Just cellars, casks, and vines.

What sets it apart

Two things, and both cut against the region.

First, oak. Most of Champagne ferments its base wines in temperature-controlled steel; Vilmart works in large wooden casks and barrels, and it was doing so well before growers made oak fashionable. The wood is the whole signature — it gives breadth, texture and a savoury depth that pull these wines toward fine white Champagne wine in the Burgundian sense rather than a light aperitif pour.

Second, Chardonnay. Rilly-la-Montagne is Pinot Noir country — the Montagne de Reims is black-grape territory, top to bottom — yet Vilmart's flagship wines lean firmly on Chardonnay, some of it from old vines. That's the tension that makes the range sing: the oak adds weight, the Chardonnay keeps it lifted and long. Weight and cut, in the same glass.

Most of the Montagne de Reims is built on Pinot Noir. Vilmart made its name doing the opposite — and ageing it in wood.

The wines to know

Start with the Grande Réserve Premier Cru. It's the house's calling card — the non-vintage brut, mostly Pinot Noir with Chardonnay in support, and already fuller and more textured than most entry-level wines from the big houses. This is the clearest, most available window into the style, and the place to begin.

From there the range climbs. Grand Cellier steps up in richness and shows the barrel more openly, a Chardonnay-and-Pinot blend. Above it, Grand Cellier d'Or is vintage-dated, Chardonnay-dominant and wood-raised — a benchmark bottling and a real cellar candidate. This is the connoisseur's pick: the purest read on the Chardonnay-and-oak signature that makes the estate matter.

Then the summit. Coeur de Cuvée is drawn only from the heart of the first, gentlest pressing of the oldest vines, fermented and aged in oak, held back for years before release. Chardonnay-led, deep, slow to reveal itself — one of the most admired wines in all of grower Champagne, and the bottle that made Vilmart's international name. Buy it, then leave it alone for a decade.

Around the edges sit Cuvée Rubis, the estate's structured, vinous rosé, and a blanc de blancs made entirely from Chardonnay. Both come in small quantities. Like everything here, grab them when you see them.

The setting

Rilly-la-Montagne lies on the northern slope of the Montagne de Reims, a short drive south of Reims and squarely on the classic touring circuit between that city and Épernay — which makes it an easy stitch into a Champagne day. The property itself is unshowy: a working grower's estate in the heart of the village, not a marketing pavilion. What separates it from the region's tiniest, most closed-off cellars is that Vilmart has long been willing to open its doors to people who genuinely care about the wine, and keeps a tasting space for exactly that.

Visiting

By appointment only — but that appointment is worth chasing. This is a small family estate, not a big-house tour desk with set hours, so there's no walk-in cellar door. Arrange a slot ahead, come as a serious taster, and you can expect to see the cellar and the barrels that shape the wines, and to taste across the range with the people who make it.

Availability is limited and shifts with the season and the harvest calendar, so confirm directly with the estate before you plan around it. If a visit doesn't come together, the fallback is easy: Vilmart pours well on the better lists in Reims, Épernay and Paris, and a specialist Champagne merchant is the surest route to bottles for the cellar. Get on an allocation list early — the top cuvées don't linger.

What to buy

Start with the Grande Réserve Premier Cru — the house style in its most available form. For Vilmart at full stretch, chase a bottle of Coeur de Cuvée and give it years; barrel-fermented, old-vine Champagne this complete is rare. In between, the vintage-dated Grand Cellier d'Or is the connoisseur's choice, and the clearest expression of the Chardonnay-and-oak signature that defines the estate.