Champagne Billecart-Salmon, Réserve

The NV Brut Reserve is a tasty, non-vintage Champagne. Orchard fruit, lime, white flowers and white pepper. The Brut Reserve is a total charmer, silky, creamy, and exceptionally polished. All the elements are so well balanced. This release is based on 2019. Dosage is 6.10 grams per litre. Disgorged: 4th quarter 2022.

Mathieu Roland-Billecart has given his family’s Maison a much-needed kick in the rear end since taking over the reins in 2019. For years, Billecart-Salmon was a sleepy maison turning out gorgeous Champagnes at the top end but several undistinguished offerings at the lower level. Booking appointments or even getting a reply from the Maison was a challenge. That attitude was also pervasive at their US importer, T. Edward, because leadership, or lack of it, is a contagious force. 

Things are remarkably different today. Roland-Billecart is young and dynamic, very much in touch with the modern world. Recent wines made under his tenure show more focus and quality than in the past because of greater selection and attention to detail. I was deeply impressed with what I tasted at the Maison during a recent visit and then more recently at my office in the US.

Drink 2023 - 2029

Disgorged late 2019. 9 grams per litre dosage. Origin number 161233.

The first wine tasted in a short vertical to highlight the evolution of the NV Champagne Brut over the past several years, this release is from the 2016 vintage and is composed of 44% Meunier and 28% each Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with 64% reserve wine, with 4% cask ageing. Pouring a rich straw hue, it opens to generous and lightly toasty aromas of ripe red berries, caramel, and honeycomb. 

Medium to full-bodied, it’s ripe, rounded, expressive, and approachable, although it feels the touch of dosage in its texture and the suggestion of sweetness. Its fruit is ripe and long on the palate, with a hint of walnut skin on the long finish. It is certainly the classic, old-school style, and compared to the other wines, it has a bit broader shoulders. Its toasty touch likely comes from the malolactic fermentation permitted instead of oak.

Drink 2023 - 2030

40% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir.

Dried lemon, grapefruit, croissants and salted almonds here, with a flavorful palate. Creamy bubbles. Layered and delicious NV.

Base wine 2018, the blend that will last until September 2023. 40% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir. 55% reserve wines. 4% barrel vinification. Dosage 6 g/l.

Lively lemon nose. Masses of acidity! Still very youthful. Still a little astringent at the end. Ambitious wine that ideally needs even) more bottle age.

Drink 2024 - 2029

A fine straw-gold colour with great finesse of bubble flow and mousse. Joyful aromas of apple blossom and ripe pear. A full, defined palate demonstrates richness that will help to give this a long life in the cellar.

Based on the 2018 vintage, with 55% of reserve wines, the NV Brut Réserve from Billecart-Salmon is a blend of 40% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir, with a dosage of 6.2 grams per litre. It offers a bouquet with aromas of spring flowers, menthol, pastry, brioche, orchard fruits and pear. 

Medium to full-bodied, the palate is moderately weighted, with a delicate mousse and a perfectly balanced texture. Very charming. It concludes with a saline, aromatic finish. It represents the first stage in the qualitative evolution of the house, initiated by Mathieu Roland-Billecart.

Drink 2023 - 2028