Billecart-Salmon's Stunning, Overachieving 2015 Rosé Champagne
Sometimes a Champagne can be just too delicious. It seems crazy, but the 2015 Billecart-Salmon Rosé Champagne $119.99, at first destined to become a Cuvée Elisabeth, the pinnacle of rosé mastery at Champagne Billecart-Salmon, was declassified for just this reason. Mathieu Roland-Billecart, the seventh-generation CEO of this great house, explained that this 2015 will not last two more generations, so he made the difficult decision to sell it as Le Rosé after blending it and bottling it with the original intention of making it an Elisabeth, their top-of-the-line rosé. If you are looking for a profoundly great wine to drink tonight or over the next 10 years, look no further, this is the kind of deal that comes along rarely in the realm of truly top-end luxury cuvées.
It is a blend of 52% Chardonnay and 48% Pinot Noir and has been aged 100 months on the lees. The base wines come from a roll call of the best vineyard sites in Champagne: Mesnil, Avize, Cramant, and Chouilly for the Chardonnay; Ambonnay, Mareuil, Verzenay, Aÿ, and Verzy for the Pinot Noirs. But the secret ingredient here is the red wine that gives this cuvée its color, aroma, and rosé flavor—all from an over 80-year-old plot of Pinot Noir called the Vallofroy, immediately adjacent to the Clos de Goisses, located on an impossibly steep south-facing slope on the banks of the Marne River. It is dosed low, just 4.7 grams per liter, but is not at all austere—I must say it is the best wine that I have had from this vintage.
I have now enjoyed this bottling four times, once as a preview bottle with the team here at K&L, once with cellar master Florent Nys at the property, again while making a video, and just last week at our Taverna event with Clément from Billecart-Salmon. What makes this Champagne so good for me is the contrast between the brightness and minerality of the top-class Grand Cru Chardonnay and the small (just 6.6% percent) portion of concentrated red wine. I find not only Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses savory black cherry power, but effortless elegance and bright chalkiness in this great Champagne. It has the gorgeous baguette toast quality of long aging and the freshness and drive of a young wine… I can’t get enough of it. There are none of the herbal elements that dog other 2015s, just clean refreshment, chalky persistence, and generous, perfect rosé fruit. Don’t miss it—deals like this are a rare thing.
A toast to you!