Unsung Heroes: Billecart-Salmon

It is one of our favourite Champagnes, and almost the only line we've had in stock continuously since we opened back in 1994. Nico Billecart even did an internship with us. 200 years and seven generations after it was founded, Billecart-Salmon is one of the few major Champagne houses to remain family-owned, and their commitment to quality has been a constant over the years. It shines through in the precision, finesse and elegance of their Champagnes.

The house was founded in 1818, at the marriage of Nicolas-Francois Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon (whose names live on in the respective blanc and rosé prestige cuvees). It weathered phylloxera, the Great Depression, and having its cellar stocks largely shipped off to Germany during the Second World War. The modern era has seen the careful acquisition of more grand cru vineyards. Nowadays, the house has 100 hectares of its own vineyards, manages another 120, and buys grapes by contract from families in another 100 hectares. These numbers make Billecart one of the smaller grandes maisons. 

The Brut Reserve depends on an unusually high proportion of 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. And while Pinot Noir is the backbone of vintage Billecart, they also have some excellent Chardonnay, as proven by the Blanc des Blancs. /NT