Champagne Billecart-Salmon

Champagne in Asia largely consists of a handful of big brands, most of them owned by that four letter word of all that is luxury round these parts: LVMH.  Certainly in the bars and restaurants of the large hotel groups’ outlets here in Singapore that’s mainly what’s offered.  And not without good if slightly insidious reason; the big Champagne boys have a lot of marketing clout and these days hotels are under a lot of pressure to leverage profit wherever they can.

Yet a few privately owned restaurants and bars make a welcome point of differentiation by offering something a little different.  I was sat perusing the Champagne list of one such bar, the popular ground floor watering hole shared by Absinthe and Oso Restaurants on Bukit Pasoh Road, when I came across a large selection of Billecart-Salmon’s top vintage cuvees.  Opting for a very satisfying (and not over-priced, I hasten to add) bottle of the Cuvee Nicolas-Francois 1998, I was duly inspired to recant my get-together a few weeks back with Antoine Billecart-Salmon.

In May 2009 Antoine Roland-Billecart of Champagne Billecart-Salmon was passing through Singapore and his locally based brand manager organized for us to meet.  Now the Champenois are not exactly known to be a bunch of fleeting wallflowers, but Antoine is a man on an assertively zealous communication mission.  Such was his fervor for explaining his wines that I could hardly get a word in edgeways.  Thankfully our conversation was not dominated by a tediously boring marketing spin about any long-dead widows or monks but rather some interesting details of how the top cuvees of Billecart-Salmon are produced.  And good-on Antoine for his enthusiasm - these are diligently crafted wines that deserve more recognition.

For continuity’s sake, I’ll start by sharing the background info that I only managed to ascertain at the end of our meeting.  Champagne Billecart-Salmon works with around 200 hectares of vineyards in Champagne.  15 ha are owned by the house and another 50 ha are rented.  The remaining vineyards are in the hands of independent growers with whom Billecart-Salmon has contracted for 2-3 generations.  The house has the potential to produce 2 million bottles per year but in reality they produce around 1.6-1.7 million bottles.  60% of their sales are the non-vintage blends.  Only about 3% of their total production currently goes to Asia.   

The tasting opened with a metaphorical bang – the 1996 Cuvee Nicolas-Francois, a blend of roughly 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay with no dosage.  “1996 was a matter of preserving the acidity,” Antoine explained.  The acidity is certainly marked on the palate of this wine contributing to its tightness at this very youthful stage, but added sweetness is not at all missed in the overall balance.

Antoine elaborated on the methods behind the making of the top cuvees.  To begin, the musts are double cold settled after pressing as he wants to get rid of any and all sulphides.  The aim is for a very pure must.  “Our main target is to concentrate on the freshness of the fruit,” he points out.  “To save the fruit identity is very important to us.”  The fermentation temperature is kept relatively low.  The house uses hardy yeast that will work at 11 degrees C and the fermentation temperature will not go higher than 14.  Thus it is a very slow primary fermentation that normally takes around 4-5 weeks.  Depending on the vintage they decide how much malo-lactic fermentation to perform.  “You need a bit of MLF for complexity,” Antoine adds.

The next Champagne to be tasted was the 1996 Cuvee Elisabeth Rose, a rose seemingly vying for achieving the palest possible colour and still qualifying for this category.  The subtlety in hue is mimicked on the aroma and palate with impressively distinctive results.  The core is a very fine Champagne comprised of a 50/50 Chardonnay / Pinot blend.  Then a tiny amount of red wine, produced from Pinot sourced from their estate vines, is blended-in to achieve the wine’s faintly salmon colour.  The addition of the red wine also provides the slightest suggestion of phenolic grip here – a characteristic that I appreciate on rose Champagnes and something that the saignee produced examples lack.

Our tasting finished with the 1996 Grande Cuvee.  This prestige cuvee was introduced to the range fairly recently, composed of a blend of the house’s very best wines and only produced in exceptional vintages.  In the 1990s only three vintages were produced: 1990, 1996 and 1998.  Production is small, only 40-50,000 bottles are produced per release.  However, Antoine informed me that 1998 - a fantastic vintage that he believes is stylistically between 1990 and 1996 – was the last vintage of this wine that will ever be produced.  “We want our future emphasis to be on Cuvee Nicolas-Francois.”  He went on to explain that the only way for them to increase production of Cuvee Nicolas-Francois while maintaining the quality is to use the wines that formerly went into the Grand Cuvee.  The ultimate goal is to achieve Cuvee Nicolas-Francois volumes of 120-150,000 bottles per declared vintage.        

Antoine designs his top cuvees to age and that these 1996s will develop beautifully over many years seems clear in their structure, intensity and complexity even at this early stage.  On the subject of ageability, Antoine went on to refer me to a tasting organized by the wine journalist Richard Juhlin in 1999 of vintage Champagnes from 1922 – 1982.  Antoine’s father was reluctant to enter any of their wines into this blind competition, but ever-zealous Antoine submitted two bottles from their private reserves:  1959 and 1961 (labeled Cuvee Nicolas-Francois).  Amongst an impressive line-up of contenders, these two bottles took first and second places, respectively.  Goes to show, when you’ve got something this great to communicate it pays to this assertively zealous.

Champagne Billecart-Salmon is imported in Singapore by:

J & D Burleigh Pte Ltd
Importer & Distributor of Fine Estate-Bottled Wines
3 Clementi Loop, Level 3
Singapore 129815
Tel.  +65 6744 2765
Fax. +65 6744 2715
Contact. Josephine Chua
Email. josephine@jdburleigh.com

Tasting Notes

Champagne Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Nicolas-Francois 1996
95 points
Intense aromas of toasted brioche, apple crumble and apricots with cream plus a drizzle of honey.  The palate provides superb concentration of pure apple and stone fruit flavours complimented by a little nuttiness.  Very dry and crisp.  Long finish adding some chalky / minerality.  Still very youthful.  Drink now to 2020+.  Tasted May 2009.

Champagne Billecart-Salmon Cuvee Elisabeth Rose 1996
96 points
Exceptionally pale salmon colour.  Wonderfully fragrant nose of rose petals, honeysuckle, wild strawberry shortcake plus hints of toast and chalk dust.  The palate shows a combination of pure berry and green apple intensity with seamless balance.  This Champagne is indeed very fine, elegant and crisp with exquisitely small bubbles and a very long finish.  A little more approachable now than the 1996 Cuvee Nicolas-Francois, but still youthful.  Drink now to 2019.  Tasted May 2009.

Champagne Billecart-Salmon Grande Cuvee 1996
95 points   
The nose is an enticing mélange of floral and earth aromas with a dollop of savoury: jasmine, slate, white pepper, freshly baked bread and marmite.  The palate is very dry, very tight and seems to be restraining an explosion of fruit and autolytic expression.  Crisp acidity and very fine bubbles.  Very long minerally finish.  Drink now to 2020+.  Tasted May 2009.