A visit with Mathieu Roland Billecart
Mathieu Roland-Billecart in the SF store last month.
On the morning of May 12, 2023, our San Francisco staff had the extreme pleasure of attending a seminar and tasting with Mathieu Roland Billecart of Champagne Billecart-Salmon. We learned about the history of Billecart-Salmon, including its founding in 1818 occasioned by the marriage between Nicolas François Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon. Billecart fans will likely be familiar with these names as they appear on the current 2008 Billecart-Salmon "Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart" NFB Brut Champagne and on bottles of the famous Cuvée Elisabeth Brut Rosé that we regularly have in stock.
Our U.S.–based Billecart representative, Clement, put together two sets for us to taste. These were composed of the Billecart-Salmon "Brut Réserve" Champagne $59.99 and the 2008 Billecart-Salmon "Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart" NFB Brut Champagne $229.99, as well as the Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé Champagne $94.99 and one-time only 2010 Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé Champagne $119.99. The Brut Réserve was very balanced and elegant with clean mouthfeel, Granny Smith apple fruit, saline, lemon zest, and toasted almond. Magnify that 10 times with the NFB: super small bead, with citrus and honeyed almonds and sea salt. Incredible quality in this bottling. The Brut Rosé, with its white peach and strawberry fruit, is always memorable, while the out-of-this-world 2010 Brut Rosé has notes of cherry, strawberry, bright spice, and chalk. This one is in limited supply and is not to be missed.
Mathieu also explained the roll out of the “My Origin” program. This comprises a bottle number on the back label of each bottle with which one can go to the Billecart-Salmon website, type the number in, and voila! All the information about that bottle is now in front of you. Many of our bottles of Brut Réserve currently have these numbers on them. Eventually, all bottles of every release will. Fascinating! So, our SF staff had an incredibly fun start to their morning! A big thank you to Mathieu, Geoffrey, Clement, and Eric!