Billecart-Salmon, Sous Bois, Brut NV

“The latest release of Billecart’s NV Brut Sous Bois is excellent, unwinding in the glass with notes of lemon oil, crisp stone fruit, buttery pastry and freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and elegantly vinous, with chalky phenolic structure and an enlivening pillowy mousse, it’s impressively deep and concentrated, with fine tension and grip. Early renditions of this cuvée tended to be at their best on release, but this impressive effort appears to be built to age.”-92+WA, 2021-2033

Disgorgement Dates May Vary

In 1818, Nicolas François Billecart and his wife Elisabeth Salmon founded the house of Billecart-Salmon in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, which now stands as the oldest continuously family-owned and operated house in Champagne. The estate is currently managed by the family’s seventh generation, brothers François and Antoine Roland-Billecart, while the cellars lie in the hands of Florent Nys.

After 33 years, François Domi has handed over the baton of Chief Winemaker to Florent, who has been working as an apprentice under the watchful eye of François since 2005, is now ready to take over the reins. Denis Blée, director of the vineyard, for the last twenty years has been responsible for the Clos Saint-Hilaire and the oak Chai.

The excellence of Billecart-Salmon champagnes rests, above all, on the knowledge of those who rigorously select from vineyards of more than 300 hectares, of which about 100 hectares belong to the House and its shareholders, divided between over 40 different Champagne crus. Most grapes used for winemaking come from a radius of 20km around Epernay, where the great wines of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier from the Montagne de Reims, Côte des Blancs and the Vallée de la Marne are to be found. In its constant quest for excellence, Billecart-Salmon favors cultivation methods that aim to protect the environment and promote biodiversity. Long before being certified High Environmental Value and Sustainable Viticulture in Champagne in 2017, Maison Billecart-Salmon was already focused on managing its vineyards with the utmost respect for the environment. Beyond a simple approach, it’s a long-term state of mind that calls for constant self-assessment and continuous progress.

The house operates on the philosophy that an early harvest yields more elegant, delicate Champagnes. They look for strong acid structure rather than alcohol as a preservative, and therefore, never harvest at higher than 10° potential alcohol. They strive to carry out their harvest with minimal grape handling and transit time by utilizing four press houses on the property.