Pierre Gimonnet & Fils Cuis Blanc de Blancs 375ml

94 POINTS

James Halliday - Halliday's Wine Companion

In these days of sharply rising prices, this family-run house offers great value thanks to its magnificent chardonnay vineyards. This is Gimmonet's entry-point wine, the bouquet of white flowers/apple blossom, the palate with elegance and balance, fruit finish fresh thanks to the modest dosage of 5.5g/l.

92 POINTS

Roger Voss - Wine Enthusiast

With its crisp apple fruit and touch of citrus, this initially seems to be merely fruit. Then, slowly, richness and a sense of maturity emerge to create a wine that is complex, full and rich. Open this an hour before pouring.

91 POINTS

Huon Hooke

Lightly toasty, bready bouquet with a little poached fruit and baked apple. The palate is soft and green-appley, gentle and clean to finish with relatively little aged complexity. Good intensity and vitality, then a long carry on the aftertaste. Refreshing.

90 POINTS

Stephen Reinhardt - Wine Advocate

I tasted two different versions of Gimonnet's signature NV Cuis 1er Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs earlier this year; both were excellent as usual. The most recent disgorgement from January 2015 is based on the 2011 vintage (+ 22% Réserve wines), and is very pure, lovely, fresh and delicate on the typically intense, chalky/mineral, well balanced and elegant palate. The lighthearted yet quite complex wine was disgorged with a dosage of 6.5 grams per liter. The forerunner, based on 2008 and disgorged in October 2014, was even finer and provided with a very god length.

90 POINTS

Antonio Galloni - Wine Advocate

Gimonnet’s NV Brut Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs Premier Cru Cuvee Cuis fills out nicely on the mid-palate, with a little more mid-palate pliancy and richness than the Belles Annees. Green pears, flowers and crushed rocks are some of the nuances that flow through to a wiry finish endowed with significant energy and polish. This is a striking effort from Gimonnet. Disgorgement date: August 2, 2012. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2016. Didier Gimonnet’s Champagnes are cool, bracing and pure. All of the wines undergo malolactic fermentation – yet remain very much wiry – and are aged exclusively in stainless steel. A Terry Theise Selection, imported by Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300

David Schildknecht - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Representing, perplexingly, a very different blend from that disgorged under this label at the same time but in 750 ml. bottles – here we have vintages 2004-2008, with nearly three-quarters being 2010 – the Gimonnet NV Brut Blanc de Blancs Cuis 1.5 Ltr. Disg. 5/2013 delivers a crisp and juicy amalgam of celery root, fresh apple, and cucumber as if in a sort of crunchy and refreshing slaw, positive tartness of apple skin as well as chalky suffusion furthering a sense of satisfying grip. This will certainly be worth following for at least 2-3 years and quite possibly gain in depth. Pierre Gimonnet farms nearly 70 prime acres – overwhelmingly in the Cote des Blancs – which are reflected in a similarly enormous range of different cuvees, most of them represented in the U.S. market in any given year and tasted by me for this report. What’s more, future expansion of official Champagne acreage around Cramant and Chouilly will offer Gimonnet opportunity to broaden his vine footprint. Terry Theise Estate Selections, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Inc., Syosset, NY; tel. (516) 677-9300