MV Bonnet-Gilmert Champagne "La Réserve" Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru

Emile Gilmert started bottling his own wine in 1910 when most growers just sold grapes. His son Marcel expanded production. By the 1950s, Colette Gilmert and Robert Bonnet were bottling everything. Today, fifth-generation Aude Vauban runs the show with her family. They survive—thrive, actually—surrounded by luxury houses like Salon, Krug, and Pierre Peters because they make exceptional wine and sell it for honest prices. No marketing budget. No American importer. Just 2,000 cases that disappear into Swiss car trunks and a handful of European restaurants. The “La Réserve” comes from prime Grand Cru parcels. The chalk here runs deep—300 feet of pure Cretaceous limestone that gives Côte des Blancs Chardonnay its signature: laser precision, saline minerality, and the kind of tension that makes sommeliers weak in the knees. Oak aging before secondary fermentation adds texture without masking terroir. Extended lees contact (36 months) builds complexity. This is serious winemaking hiding behi