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The 2007 Brut Cuvée Louis Salmon is another stellar wine from Billecart-Salmon. In many ways, it is the polar opposite of 2006. Here the team felt the wine needed body to balance the tension of the year. About half of the lots were done in barrel, while most of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation. Pretty citrus and floral notes abound. Stylistically, the 2007 is a bit more open than the 2006, even though the personalities of the two years would have suggested the exact opposite. The Louis Salmon is a blend from sites in Chouilly, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Cramant. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. (Originally published in May 2021)
The 2007 Brut Cuvée Louis Salmon is another stellar wine from Billecart-Salmon. In many ways, it is the polar opposite of 2006. Here the team felt the wine needed body to balance the tension of the year. About half of the lots were done in barrel, while most of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation. Pretty citrus and floral notes abound. Stylistically, the 2007 is a bit more open than the 2006, even though the personalities of the two years would have suggested the exact opposite. The Louis Salmon is a blend from sites in Chouilly, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Cramant. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. (Originally published in May 2021)
Billecart has augmented its oak imprint from 15% in 2006 to 50% in 2007 and yet I can barely sense this increase given that this wine is in silky, lascivious harmony. It has aged for nearly a decade on its lees and it is ready to go right now. The counterpoint between delicacy, refinement and steely intent is wondrous and every time you let this wine caress your palate it does so with a discreet, but highly enjoyable pinch of drama on the back end of each sip. As I get older, I drink fewer and fewer bottles of Champagne, preferring to save myself for the wines that really matter while turning down the offer of anything but those wines I know pass my sky high standards. 2007 Louis is one of only a handful of truly great Champagnes I have tasted in the last twelve months and I cannot recommend it enough.
Champagne, the world's greatest sparkling wine, needs little introduction - with imitations produced in virtually every country capable of growing grapes, including such unlikely candidates as India and China. The Champagne region, to the north of Paris, has the most northerly vineyards in France, with vines grown on slopes with a southerly exposure to maximise sunlight. The soil is chalky, providing an excellent balance of drainage and water retention. The key to the wine is in the cellar - the bubbles result from a second fermentation in the bottle and the rich toasty flavours in great Champagne come from extended bottle ageing on the yeasty lees. Until the eighteenth century, the wines produced in the Champagne area were light acidic white wines, with no hint of sparkle. However glass and closure technology developed at that time and it was not long before Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Hautvilliers, started experimenting with blends and produced the first recognisable champagne. In a world accustomed to still wines, the advent of champagne was almost a flop. It was saved when it became fashionable at the French court as a result of Louis XV's mistress Madame de Pompadour commenting "Champagne is the only wine that lets a woman remain beautiful after she has drunk it." And the rest is history, with famous (or infamous) champagne lovers including Casanova, Dumas, Wagner, Winston Churchill, James Bond and Coco Chanel.
