2021 Lismore Chardonnay Reserve 'completely blew us away'
'The most impressive of Billecart's recent vintage releases'
The Champagne house of Billecart-Salmon has made a fine art of their vintage cuvée. So it's a shame that the elegant, precisely made 2016 Vintage is also to be their last. Going forward, the range will be divided between their classic non-vintage Le Réserve, and the higher-priced, prestige vintage cuvée named after the founder of the house, Nicolas-François. We have 11 cases of 2016 Billecart-Salmon bottles left (8 of magnums) and when they're gone, classic Billecart-Salmon Vintage will really be gone.
2016 was by no means an easy vintage for a swansong, with April frost, rain at flowering, then a hot, dry summer. But Billecart Vintage has always been driven by Pinot Noir, and Pinot responded surprisingly well to the summer heat. The final blend is 66% Pinot Noir tempered by the cool elegance of 34% Chardonnay from the Montagne de Reims and the Côte des Blancs. All the fruit came from grand cru vineyards.
Billecart-Salmon Vintage has always leaned into a gastronomic, food-friendly, extra-brut style. The philosophy has been that more natural richness in the base wines means less need for a dosage of sugar to compensate, and (with a dosage of only 1.9g/L) Billecart has found that compensating richness from ripe, concentrated fruit, and fermenting a proportion of the base wines in oak. According to Decanter, 2016 is 'the most impressive of Billecart's recent vintage releases'. And it's also the last. /NT
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