2009 Vilmart Coeur de Cuvee

The 2009 Brut Coeur de Cuvée is radiant and inviting, with soft contours and tons of immediacy. Apricot, spice, wild flowers, pastry and lightly honeyed notes infuse the 2009 with tons of complexity. The 2009 is a stellar Coeur de Cuvée, but I also get the sense it will mature a bit earlier than other recent vintages, so I wouldn't push my luck on aging. Dosage is 8 grams per liter. Disgorged: May, 2016.

Disgorged in May 2016, Vilmart's 2009 Coeur de Cuvée is predictably superb, wafting from the glass with a lovely bouquet of lemon oil, verbena, dried white flowers, walnut oil and wet stones. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied and fleshy but precise, with a voluminous mousse, incisive acids, superb concentration and more energy and tension than many examples of this vintage—no doubt amplified by Vilmart's use of only the best press fraction for this bottling—concluding with a long, elegantly chalky finish. The blend is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. This is a wine that merits ardent pursuit.

A racy, exuberant wine, the 2009 Coeur de Cuvée offers up a super-appealing mélange of apricot, butter, baked apple tart and vanillin. The combination of the ripe, warm vintage along with fermentation and aging in small French oak barrels yielded an especially opulent Coeur de Cuvée with plenty of exotic and tropical overtones. The 2009 will be ready to drink with minimal cellaring. Disgorged March 2016. Dosage is 8 grams per liter.