Billecart Salmon 2013 Champagne ~ Champagne, France

94/100 Wine Spectator
94/100 Wine Enthusiast
93/100 James Suckling
16.5/20 La Revue du Vin de France
96/100 James Halliday (2009 vintage)
95/100 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com (2009 vintage)
94/100 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (2009 vintage)
94/100 Wine & Spirit (2009 vintage)
91/100 Wine Spectator (2009 vintage)
17/20 Matthew Jukes (2019 vintage)

Vintage Champagne

Wine Spectator "A vibrant Champagne, finely balanced and lacy in texture, serving as an elegant canvas for layered flavors of yellow peach, chopped almond, cherry, toast point and preserved lemon. Minerally smoke, chalk and spice notes play on the finish. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay."

Wine Enthusiast "A finely textured Champagne, this is definitely dry, still young, and with great potential. The wine's minerality combines with the texture to give both tension and richness."

James Suckling "A creamy and fresh Champagne with aromas of croissants, brioche, lemon curd, white cocoa and marmalade. Silky bubbles. Lovely pastry notes and an elegant finish."

James Halliday "Comprises 40/33/27% pinot noir/chardonnay/pinot meunier, 73% grands and premiers crus. The low dosage of 2g/l and the warm vintage allow the fruit-based flavours free rein - white peach, Granny Smith apple and nectarine. The finish and aftertaste remain fresh and long. A house in grand form." (2019 vintage)

Wilfred Wong of Wine.com "The 2009 Billecart-Salmon Extra Brut is complex, generous, and drinking nicely. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits authentic aromas and flavors of earth, savory spices, and ripe apple. Pair it with linguine and clams." (2019 vintage)

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate "Disgorged with two grams per liter dosage, Billecart-Salmon's 2009 Extra Brut Vintage is more giving and demonstrative than its 2008 counterpart, offering up inviting aromas of crisp stone fruit, yellow apple, brioche, honeycomb and warm pastry. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with a pillowy mousse and a generous core of fruit girdled by bright acids, it's seamless and complete. Indeed, such is its charm and persistence that I tend to prefer it, at least for now, to the 2008." (2019 vintage)

Wine & Spirit "A majority of red grapes (40 percent pinot noir and 27 percent meunier) from a majority of grands crus (73 percent) make up this pan-regional blend. Vinified in stainless steel, it has main- tained freshness over the course of long aging on the lees, presenting brisk, cool flavors of lime zest, star fruit and pear. That fruit complexity lasts, while the textural pleasure brings you back for another sip." (2019 vintage)

Wine Spectator "A balanced version. Offers more savory mineral character upfront, with accents of brine, chalk and smoke leading to more subtle notes of baked plum, preserved lemon and beeswax that emerge through the creamy mid palate and firm finish. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay" (2019 vintage)

Matthew Jukes "This small house is one of the finest producers of Champagne, full stop." (2019 vintage)

Jancis Robinson "Aged for more than nine years on the lees. Dosage just 4 g/l. Seems quite evolved on the nose ..... Savoury and ambitious..... Lots of precision and intellectual stimulation.....Back label tells us this is made up of 65% Pinot Noir from the Montagne de Reims and the Grande Vallée de la Marne and 35% Grand Cru Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs." (2019 vintage)

The Winemaker "This wine, with an extra brut dosage, is dominated by great Pinot Noir flavours which is tempered by the elegance of the Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs and that signature touch of Pinot Meunier."

Frédéric Turpaud - Head sommelier at the Restaurant Divellec, Paris "From the very first taste, I experienced a real love at first sight for the Vintage. For me it incarnates the spirit of Billecart with freshness and finesse. With this vintage in particular, there is a majority of Pinot Noir which brings about an elegance and a framework for a great refinement..."

Matthew Jukes "2009 Billecart-Salmon, Vintage is a very rich creation from this perennially elegant House. If you want to see what happens to the Billecart model when the sunshine beats down, then this is it. Full, imposing, heady and main-course-shaped, this is Billecart for power-lifters!"

Billecart-Salmon is one of the few remaining Champagne houses to be owned by the original family and was established in 1818 by Nicolas-François Billecart. Most of Billecart-Salmon's fruit comes from a small vineyard holding, though this is supplemented with grapes bought in from the Marne Valley and the Montagne de Reims. Meticulous production techniques, from the use of their own cultured yeast to its long, slow, cool fermentation, ensure that the family has 100 percent control of production.

Champagne is the most iconic sparkling wine in the world, produced in the region of Champagne in France. Synonymous with celebration, champagne is typically produced from a few specific varieties of grapes: pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot meunier. With effervescent flavors of citrus, almond, and apple, champagne comes in varying levels of sweetness and has a moderate amount of alcohol. The most treasured Champagnes age for a minimum of 3 years.

The Champagne region is located 140 kilometres from Paris, France. While the vines in this region have been producing wine since the Roman era, it is only in the past couple of hundred years that winemakers began producing Champagne using méthode champenoise - the complex method that produces the style of Champagne the world knows and loves today. Another important component of the production of champagne is the chalk and limestone soils which dominate the Champagne region. Vines grown in these conditions result in wines that are high in acidity - a key component to making good sparkling wine. Champagne's northerly location - about as north as grapes can ripen - also allow for higher acidity and lower alcohol levels which are also very important for producing quality sparkling wine.