Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Brut Champagne, France

"The NV Brut Blancs de Blancs is a very pretty entry-level offering from Billecart-Salmon. Lemon confit, white flowers, truffle, crushed rocks, mint and tangerine peel are all laced together in this finely-knit, chiseled Blanc de Blancs. Time in the glass brings out the wine's perfumed aromatics and an attractive exotic quality that is so alluring. This release is based on 2016 with 32% reserve wines. As always, the Blanc de Blancs is a blend from Chouilly, Avize, Cramant and Mesnil. Dosage is 3.9 grams per liter."

 

An exceptionally elegant, silky and surprisingly delicate champagne. I was expecting power, but this is like a mouthful of shimmering ribbons. An unusual floral fragrance, like the elusive scent of lily of the valley in an early-morning garden. Rich citrus woven into baked pear, tingling with green-apple sherbet. The bubbles float over the wine like cashmere lace. Tremendous purity. And the wine develops in the glass in a way I was not expecting, becoming richer, more dense, beginning to taste of violets and fresh-churned pink clay, of bread-yeast starters and sleepy pools of candlelight. A poet's champagne."

 

"From Grand Cru villages on the Côte des Blancs, this Champagne is beautifully mineral and taut. It has white fruits and intense citrus giving texture and crispness. This is a fine wine, ready to drink."