New Brut Nature from Billecart

Champagne Billecart-Salmon has been making Champagne for over 200 years, and change comes slowly and incrementally to this great house. This year has been revolutionary for Billecart, as they have introduced two new cuvées, first the Les Rendezvous #1, and now the Billecart-Salmon "Brut Nature" Champagne. We have been waiting 8 years since the first release of the Sous Bois, and now we have two new Champagnes!

The Brut Nature is the same blend as the regular Brut Réserve: 40% Meunier, 30% Chardonnay, and 30% Pinot Noir. It benefits from at least 50% reserve wines and is kept for a minimum of 4 years on the lees, more than a year longer than the Réserve. This extra lees contact is a must for zero dosage Champagnes like this—if you don’t add sugar, you must add time, or the wine will be harsh. This no-sugar-added Champagne is in a true brut-nature style, and is very, very dry and bright.

I love to pair brut nature Champagnes with sushi, so when I got my bottle of this new Billecart, I ordered some take out from our local favorite, Kanpai. Our first toast without food woke me right up—this is a very dry, driven Champagne in the vrai sans dosage style. With the food, the texture from the long lees aging and the perfectly preserved freshness of the Marne valley fruit came to the fore. This wine was as good with the decadent rolls as it was with the nigiri, and the food brought out the sourdough-like lees character in the Champagne. 

If you are a fan of truly dry Champagne or of pairing your bubbles with food, this is not to be missed!

A toast to you,

- Gary Westby