Billecart-Salmon Louis Salmon Blanc de Blancs

Tatler Champagne Guide 2024-2025

Grape Makeup:

100% Chardonnay

Sweetness Level:

Brut

Ageing on Lees:

Nine and a half years

Price:

$$$$

Cellar:

Ten+ years

Category:

Collectible

What

A beloved, family-owned and managed house, founded in 1818, known for the purity and elegance of its style, which is achieved through a unique cold fermentation process in oak barrels and temperature-controlled oak vats, housed in the most fastidiously hygienic cellars in Champagne.

Where

Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, Vallée de la Marne; 80ha estate vineyard but management of 100ha and access to 300ha in 40 crus (mainly near Épernay) through grower relationships.

Why

Louis Salmon is a tribute to the house’s first chief winemaker and is made from their best Grand Cru parcels in the Côte des Blancs (mainly Le Mesnil for its structure, but also Cramant, Chouilly and Oiry). 2012 was a triumphal vintage, despite challenging conditions that knocked yields way down, giving Chardonnay power and richness but still enough acidity.

What Else

Billecart-Salmon Sélection, the distribution arm of the company, has recently signed an agreement with wine writer Matthew Jukes for global distribution of his premium no-alcohol beverages, already served at Le Meurice and the Crillon in Paris.

Tasting Notes

This is both bright and luxuriant, opening with ripe yellow plum and apricot fruit that radiate out on the nose and warm, buttery pound cake, dusted with notes of vanilla and sage. The texture is mouth-filling and broad but a blast of acidity comes through on the second beat, piercing the softness of the fruit, which remains enveloping and almost jellied in texture. The elevated tension continues to the end, which has a delicious malty richness but also fresh spikes of acidity.

Try It With

Especially rich triple cream cheeses, meltingly ripe

When To Drink

Cheese course

Perfect For

Your friend in the OCC (Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne) 

Tatler Tip

This is a Chardonnay from a Pinot house

TL/DR

Plummy and enveloping but with punchy acidity

Supplier

Liber