Founded in 1818, Maison Billecart-Salmon has a long, sustained history of entrepreneurism and innovation, successive generations have overcome varied challenges, and elevated the house to increasing heights. When seventh generation Mathieu Roland-Billecart returned home to Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in 2018 to take the helm at this family-owned and managed estate, he initiated a programme of agronomic, winemaking, and commercial changes which have seen the estate receive it’s greatest praise yet amongst buyers, critics, and collectors. Most notably, in 2019 the tasting committee began reevaluating the Brut Sans Année cuvée. The consummation of six impactful changes are on full display in the evolved Le Réserve, a new identity for the estate’s Brut Reserve released this month.
Great wine begins with great fruit, fruit grown with vision and harvested at optimal ripeness. The first of six impactful decisions newcomer Mathieu Roland-Billecart made was to review the estate’s many fruit contracts, particularly focusing on refining it’s Pinot Meunier selection, retaining contracts primarily around the southern slopes of Epernay and in Damery, Venteuil, Leuvrigny, and Festigny which produce Meunier with a sweet floral aroma suiting Billecart’s pillowy-yet-precise style. In total, 50 hectares of contracts were terminated—in Champagne, such terminations are protracted affairs requiring delicate management, involving helping find new homes for growers.
Accompanying this revision, Billecart-Salmon introduced a second wine, Inspiration 1818. When cultivating 100 hectares (virtually all certified organic and 10ha Demeter certified biodynamic), farming another 100 with partner-proprietors (herbicides are banned in all these 200 hectares), and purchasing fruit from another 100, not all fruit reaches desired ripeness or quality in each vineyard in every changing season. In this case, it’s neither viable or responsible to either disregard fruit or simply include it regardless. This second wine allows the maison to sensibly ‘dispose’ of unwanted fruit which would otherwise make perfectly reasonable wine, directly improving the finished quality of Le Réserve.
In 2000, François Roland-Billecart started a significant barrel program, involving purchasing nearly four hundred 228-litre barrels between 2000 and 2010, including used barrels from Domaine Leflaive. In 2008, François also began ordering two dozen 80hl thermoregulated barrels from Stockinger, François et Freres, Taransaud, and Seguin Moreau—this gargantuan investment was not completed for almost a decade. The third decision for strengthening the Brut Sans Année cuvée was to double oak vinification from 4 to 8%, including a portion in those 80hl barrels (‘seasoned’ with sacrificial juice from two vintages) maintained at 13 degrees centigrade and with malolactic fermentation completed or not depending on the vintage. This addition enhances mouthfeel and amplitude, making for a more complex, multidimensional wine.
Blending multiple vintages in Champagne began as a way to ensure consistent quality despite the region’s variable climate. This approach created a reliable ‘house style’ for each producer, a consistent profile consumers would recognise and associate with a particular estate. Over time, growers recognised that adding ‘reserve wines’ also added complexity as aged juice gained in complexity, especially if maintained as a perpetual reserve. The fourth decisive change in Le Réserve is an increase in reserve wine, including a substantial increase in the percentage coming from perpetual reserve. In 2016, 60% was reserve wine with 9.3% of this coming from the estate’s perpetual reserve. In the 2020 base Le Réserve, reserve wine totals 71% (including 15 vintages, up from 11) comprised of 35% from perpetual reserve, 60% more than four grand marque peers. This huge leap was made possible when Mathieu removed the estates Brut Nature from the range, which previously required large amounts of reserve for greater balance.
What makes champagne so distinct is the second fermentation in bottle following entreillage. Added yeast act on added sugar, slowly converting the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Then, yeasts multiply, creating a deposit (lees) that are eliminated from the finished wine by disgorgement. Just like reserve wine, in time, growers realised the lees themselves contributed to wine quality, adding aroma, texture, and flavour in a process called autolysis—leaving juice in contact with lees for a longer time enhances this process and adds greater complexity. Base 2016 Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve spent 30 months on lees, already a hefty length of time. The fifth change in Le Réserve is a significant uplift in this time, 38 months in base 2018, 44 months in 2019, and 50 months in base 20 Le Réserve, around 35% longer than the same grand marque peers. Coupled with modest dosage, this extended lees ageing lends a pure autolytic character without pungent, cloying Maillard aromas.
After disgorgement, winemakers add a liqueur d’expedition, the amount of sugar in this liqueur is known as the dosage. The final change in this sextet was to reduce and refine the dosage in Billecart’s non-vintage brut champagne. In 2018, winemaker Florent Nys inaugurated a new ‘nursery’, housed in the estate’s cellars, built for crafting a catalog of 50 liqueurs tailored to each cuvée and format. These wines are carefully produced with reduced sugar doses intended to magnify the character of each wine. ‘Dosage is seasoning, and I don’t want the same seasoning on each dish’ Mathieu jests, discussing the estates decision to eschew ‘house liqueur’. Today, as much time is spending deciding on complimentary dosage selection as on final blends for each cuvée.
In 2018, I visited Billecart-Salmon for the first time as a general paying tourist on my first trip to Champagne. In the six years since, I’ve returned many times and have been fortunate to taste a string of increasingly impressive releases, including Nicolas François 2008, Elisabeth Salmon and Louis Salmon 2012, Brut Sous Bois, and six renditions of Rendez-Vous, a diffusion series released sporadically. During this time, I’ve also witnessed many of the changes now on show in Le Réserve take shape, including the new chai, the liqueur nursery, agronomic decisions, and much more. This scale of investment is largely unrivalled amongst grand marques, in part because so many are beholden to shareholders or management, being family-owned and managed liberates long-term vision from quarterly returns. The resultant Le Réserve is a showstopper; 28% Pinot Noir, 29% Chardonnay, and 43% Pinot Meunier; 8% wine vinified in oak; a whopping 71% reserve wine, including 35% from a perpetual reserve dating to 2006 and 15 vintages total; aged for 50 months average on lees; and 3.6 g/l total sugar (3g dosage). A brilliant wine for just fifty pounds, don’t walk, run to taste this new benchmark non-vintage champagne.
