Billecart-Salmon: 'today's wines are on another level’

'The Champagnes here have never been better'

We've always loved Billecart-Salmon. It's almost the only line we've had continuously in stock since we opened back in 1994, and Nico Billecart even did an internship with us. 200 years and seven generations after it was founded, Billecart is one of the few major Champagne houses to remain family owned. It has weathered phylloxera, the Great Depression, and having its cellar stocks shipped off to Germany during the Second World War. And while quality has always been a given, it's gratifying to read about the uptick in recent years. Writing on vinous.com over the last eighteen months, Galloni has been wowed: 'today's wines are on another level... the Champagnes here have never been better'.

The Le Réserve cuvée (formerly Brut Réserve) depends on an unusually high proportion of older reserve wines, for a non-vintage cuvée of complexity and elegance. Billecart had made a rosé cuvée by the saignée method (fermenting free-run juice from red grapes) since the 1840s, but in the 1970s Jean-Roland Billecart turned things around and created a more vinous style of rosé, by adding a small amount of red wine to the white wine base. It was a big success, and the Billecart rosé has thereafter been their calling card. The Sous Bois ('under wood') cuvée has been vinified in oak casks for a richer style in a nod to the Champagnes of yesteryear, before the widespread adoption of stainless steel tanks for vinification that took place from the 1950s.

And while Pinot Noir is the backbone of vintage Billecart, they also have some excellent Chardonnay, as proven by their NV Blanc des Blancs and, even more sublimely, by the Louis Salmon vintage Blanc des Blancs. This is one of three prestige cuvées named after joint founders of the house. Nicolas François is made from their best Montagne de Reims Pinot Noir married to their best Côte de Blancs Chardonnay, and the Elisabeth Salmon is its rosé equivalent. All these prestige cuvées are part vinified in oak, and spend a full 10 years on the lees before disgorgement. The rarest cuvée of all is the Clos Saint-Hilaire. It is named after the patron saint of the church in Billecart's home town of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, and is pure Pinot Noir from an enclosed 1-hectare vineyard in the village. It has appeared only in a few favoured years, and is vinified in oak casks then aged on the lees for 15 years before release. /NT

Offered subject to remaining unsold. Wines available immediately (except for Clos Saint-Hilaire, expected spring 2027).To place an order, click on the wines below or call 020 7638 5998