A Great 2008 from Billecart
At the end of May, I was lucky enough to be hosted at Champagne Billecart-Salmon in Mareuil by none other than cellarmaster Florent Nys. We have known each other for many years, but I hadn’t had the chance to sit down with him since before the pandemic. He invited me into the new reception area at Billecart, and poured quite the tasting. We started out with the vin clair, all assembled wines with a base year of 2021—they have decided not to make any vintage bottlings from this harvest. In fact, the only wines they will bottle based on the 2021 are Réserve, Réserve Extra Brut, Rosé, Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, and Sous Bois. All of them had a lot more reserve wines added than in past vintages because of the extremely small crop in 2021. In fact the Réserve cuvée is a full 60% older vintages. We should start to see these on the market in 2025.
After the vin clair, we did a quite comprehensive tasting of new and upcoming Champagne releases. The big highlight for me was the 2008 Billecart-Salmon "Cuvée Louis" Brut Blanc de Blancs which has recently arrived here in the stores. This incredible 2008 is composed of only Grand Cru sites: 33% Cramant, 30% Chouilly, 20% Mesnil, and 17% Avize. It sees more wood fermentation than past vintages—a full third—and also one-third of the total has blocked malolactic fermentation in order to achieve more freshness and ageing potential. The batch that we have now was disgorged in October of 2020 and dosed at 7 grams per liter. This Champagne had a white-gold color that still had a flash of green after 14 years and a tight bead of dancing bubbles. I found both fresh, Puligny-Montrachet-like lime and generous brioche on the nose and on the palate. This has the magic of 2008 with plenty of ripeness and expression but also huge acidity and freshness. The back end is kaleidoscopic, swelling, and as long as any Champagne I have ever put in my mouth. Will this be the greatest of 2008s? It is hard to say now, but I am sure it is a contender, and I am signing up right now to try it at 20, 30, 40, and even 50 years of age! Sadly, it tastes so good right now that I don’t think much will be kept.
A toast to you,