NV Billecart Salmon Rose

The NV Champagne Le Rose, which pours a medium salmon color, is a benchmark wine in the range and classic for a reason. Medium to full-bodied, with intertwining notes of flowers and spice, it boasts notes of cherry blossom, fresh apricot, strawberries, and almond pastry. Elegant, refreshing, and light, it is approachable and medium-bodied, with a refined mousse. It includes a large proportion of Chardonnay in the blend, along with 21% Meunier and 24% Pinot Noir, and also features the addition of 56% reserve wine. Aged without oak, it has a dosage of 4.9 grams per liter, with a total residual sugar level of 5.5 grams. Drink 2025-2030. The Billecart-Salmon wines in this report were tasted with Cellar Master Florent Nys at the estate in Maureuil-sur-Aÿ. Alongside Mathieu Roland-Billecart, who assumed the position of CEO at this estate in 2019 and represents the seventh generation in his family, they are making notable and steady-handed improvements that are starting to shine. A full conversion to organic viticulture has been completed in the monopole vineyard of Clos Saint-Hillaire, with an emphasis on taking things even further in terms of biodiversity and experimentation with biodynamics. They have also taken steps toward further transparency regarding dosage, but recognizing that dosage is only part of the story, they have been including the total residual sugar of the wine in addition to what was added after disgorgement. They source from approximately 300 hectares of vines, a third of which they own, and those 100 hectares have also been certified organic as of 2024. French and Stockinger barrels with medium toast are purchased new and seasoned in-house for three to five years before use. About 80% of production is fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks. Only the finest plots are fermented in barrels at cold temperatures before being transferred to stainless steel tanks for aging, a process that typically takes no more than six months. For this year’s release of Le Rendez-Vous, the estate has offered two expressions of 100% Meunier with No. 7 and No. 8. Both wines highlight the same vintage of 2018 but the expression of two different terroirs. No. 7 comes from Venteuil on the right bank of Vallée de la Marne, soils rich in clay and the rest chalk, with south exposition there. The No. 8 is from the left bank of the Valle de la Marne in Leuvrigny, where the soil is chalk with an east exposure, meaning it is fresher by comparison. Disgorged the same day, the two wines were aged for 63 months on the lees. In the cellar, they blocked malolactic fermentation in No. 7 due to its already rich character after alcoholic fermentation, but allowed it in No. 8, as it was fresher and more vertical in character.

Seven percent red wine added to the blend to make the NV Champagne Brut Rosé, which is based on the 2020 harvest and is 45% Chardonnay, 25% Meunier, and the rest Pinot Noir, with about 45% reserve wine. A classic pink salmon hue, the nose is classic and pretty with notes of fresh peaches, raspberries, roses, and chalky earth. Medium-bodied and rounded, it’s approachable and fresh in style, with lovely purity and a pretty feel throughout. It’s delicious now but has the ability to age with ease over the coming 10 years. Disgorged in the first quarter of 2023, 4.7 grams per liter dosage (although interestingly, they are now including the total grams per liter, in this case 5.3 grams per liter in the final wine).

Aromas of rose, peony, red berries and guava preface the NV Brut Rosé, a medium to full-bodied, elegant and vinous Champagne rosé that concludes with a long, ethereal finish enhanced by menthol notes. A blend of 45% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 20% Pinot Meunier, it's based on the 2014 vintage with 46% vins de réserve from nine different vintages and the addition of 6% as a red wine, vinified and matured in stainless steel. Dosage: 4.7 grams per liter.