2008 Billecart-Salmon Brut Blanc De Blancs Cuvée Louis Salmon

The 2008 Brut Blancs de Blancs Louis Salmon is fabulous. It offers a compelling mix of 2008 energy and the complexity that develops with time in the bottle. Orchard fruit, spice, dried flowers, chamomile and tangerine peel all grace this exquisite, nuanced Champagne. Readers can expect a rich, broad Champagne endowed with notable textural intensity. Hints of marzipan, lemon confit and white flowers linger. Disgorged: October 2020.

The 2008 Brut Blanc de Blancs Louis Salmon, disgorged in October 2020 with a dosage of 7.5 grams per liter, presents a comparatively generous interpretation of the vintage. It unfurls in the glass with aromas of orange oil, peach and pear mingled with top notes of bergamot and freshly baked pastry. On the palate, it is full-bodied, ample and layered, structured around a rich, concentrated core of fruit sustained by incisive acidity that lends persistence. Its textural attack unfurls into a long, lemon-inflected finish. Harvested in late September, the wine is sourced from the villages of Chouilly, Cramant, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Avize. Approximately one-third was vinified in oak, and—somewhat surprisingly for this cool, incisive vintage—malolactic fermentation was largely blocked; yet this decision does not appear to have imparted any austere edge to the wine.

100% Chardonnay from the grand cru villages of the Côte des Blancs: 40% Chouilly, 33% Cramant, 20% Mesnil-sur-Oger, 7% Avize with 33% of the base wines vinified at low temperature in oak casks that are 15 years old on average. It was disgorged in May 2021 with a dosage of 7 g/l after 11 years' ageing on lees. (Information given on the back label.) Surprisingly meaty and broad for a Blanc de Blancs – a very serious, mature wine with real savour – a white burgundy sort of Blanc de Blancs. Tastes pretty dry – a food wine? Certainly a champagne connoisseur's wine… Really opens out on the finish. (JR)