2007 | Billecart-Salmon | Le Clos Saint Hilaire

The wine has an attractive Welsh gold colour, a lively and persistent mousse, and seductive aromas of nectarine, greengage and Victoria plum. I even noted a hint of spearmint. The palate maintains a youthful nervosité; behind that generous fruit, including red fruit (cherry mainly), hints of brioche and hazelnut and then an authoritative finish.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: Disgorged in November 2020 with two grams per liter dosage, Billecart-Salmon's newly released 2006 Brut Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is showing well, unwinding in the glass with aromas of pear, mirabelle plum, dried fruits, walnuts, bee pollen and spices. Full-bodied, layered and vinous, it's a concentrated, muscular young wine, allying maturing flavors with broad structural shoulders and racy acids and concluding with a long, resonant and slightly mordant finish. From a parcel planted in 1964 and vinified entirely in oak, this is a powerful Champagne of considerable presence that needs some more time on cork to unwind and round out.

• Vinous: In this radiant year, the Clos Saint-Hilaire has a touch more mid-palate sweetness and generosity, but that’s a good thing, as it balances some of the more austere leanings that can make young vintages hard to appreciate upon release. Apricot, lemon confit, ginger, graphite, spice and crushed rocks are strands in a gorgeous, captivating tapestry that dazzles right out of the gate. The precision here is just mind-blowing.

Producer Information

Billecart-Salmon is a Champagne house located in the village of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in northern France, founded in 1818 after the marriage of Nicolas François Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier all feature in the house cuvée. The range is broad, encompassing a Brut Reserve and Rosé, Extra Brut, Demi-Sec, Brut Sous Bois, Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru and the Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart. The pinnacle of the collection is the vintage Le Clos Saint Hilaire, a blanc de noirs Champagne from vines planted in 1964. The grapes come from a single-hectare plot, which is isolated and enclosed within a wall of stone (or a clos). It is aged in small Burgundian barrels and no more than 7000 bottles are produced each year. In the vineyard, Billecart-Salmon uses some biodynamic principles and eschews the use of pesticides and herbicides. Yields are kept low to increase the quality of the grapes. In the winery, the juice is racked twice – a practice that was revolutionary for Champagne when the house began doing it. Dosage is typically low, and if it is not needed in one particular year, it is simply not used. The wines age underground within the Billecart-Salmon limestone cellars in oak barrels, the oldest of which are reserved for the grand cru cuvées.

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