A few weeks back we introduced you to the soaring Blanc de Blancs Champagne of Bonnet-Gilmert, a tiny, family owned and operated estate in the heart of the most lauded village for Chardonnay in the Côte de Blancs: Mesnil-sur-Oger. Their Brut Reserve is easily one of the best deals in Grand Cru Champagne we’ve seen in years, but we saved the best for last. They also make miniscule amounts of vintage, aka millésime, Champagne and after our visit last fall they agreed to let us have a few precious cases. I consider vintage bottles from Pierre Peters, Moncuit, and (when lighting strikes) Salon to be among the best wines I’ve ever had. And folks, I have to tell you that this bottle is in that league. It’s supremely elegant, mineral, and impossibly long on the finish, and at ten years of age it is just getting started. All of that and more, and somehow the price is well below $100 (a fraction of what their famous neighbors charge). We have exactly 8 cases, and then it will be gone for good. Don’t wait!
*NOTE: This is a pre-arrival offer, wines are en route from France and are estimated to arrive in mid-October.
Long before Le Mesnil-sur-Oger was the home base for some of the most exclusive, and pricey, Champagnes on the planet, the Gilmert clan was farming grapes and selling them to négociants to eke out a living. Then, in 1910 the enterprising Emile Gilmert decided to bottle some wine himself, and his son Marcel increased the bottling production when he took the helm. Marcel’s daughter Colette and her husband Robert Bonnet begin bottling the entire harvest in the 1950s, and that is the birth of what is now the Grower-Producer Bonnet-Gilmert.
Today the fifth generation is at the helm, with Aude Vauban leading the charge, but this is truly a full family affair as it was her niece who greeted us in Mesnil to lead the tasting and give us a tour of the cellar. With access to prime parcels in the heart of this famous Grand Cru, the general philosophy of their winemaking is to let that sublime terroir do all the talking. The only “spice” they add is using neutral French oak barriques to age the wines prior to bottling and secondary fermentation. This adds depth and texture to the pure, chiseled, extra chalky minerality for which Mesnil is famous. Indeed it is the same approach that ultra-lux house Krug takes with their own “Clos du Mesnil”bottling–of course that wine will set you back a cool four digits, about 20 times today’s 2014 millésime!
That a small, hardworking, and convivial clan of grower-producers continues to not just survive, but thrive surrounded by the likes of Krug, Salon, and Pierre Peters is frankly astounding, but thrive they do and the wines speak for themselves. The 2014 vintage is sourced from the family’s best Grand Cru parcels, and selected from their favorite barrels only in the best years. It is then aged for an astounding eight years on the fine lees before disgorgement. Serve this masterpiece in your best all-purpose or Burgundy stems at a cool, not cold, 50 degrees. The shimmering, straw-gold hue with a core of bronze will delight almost immediately with aromas of Bosc pear, tarte aux pommes, lemon cream, toasted hazelnut, marzipan, citrus blossom, and a hint of baking spice. Textured, elegant, and loaded with the famous Mesnil minerality, this beauty can stand all on its own, but it will also shine with fresh shellfish, sashimi, alpine cheeses, or anything that you can shave truffles on!
