Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brand Overview
Founded in 1818 with the marriage of Nicolas François Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon, Billecart-Salmon is today still in the hands of the original family who founded it. François and Antoine Roland-Billecart are the sixth generation and lead this independent House with the help and support of their father, Jean Roland-Billecart.
Alongside the family members are a dedicated team of people who hold the House values dear to them such as General Manager Alexandre Bader, who is in charge of spreading the values of the House around the world, Chef de Cave François Domi, who has produced this fine and elegant champagne for nearly thirty years and Vineyard Director Denis Blée, who has tended the vines for the last twenty years and is responsible for Clos Saint-Hilaire. From pruning to harvest, he rigorously surveys each parcel of the vineyard and ensures maturation of the wine in the barrels.
The excellence of Champagne Billecart-Salmon is above all due to the knowledge of its people who cultivate an estate of 100 hectares and manage its grapes over an area totalling 220 hectares and 40 Crus around the Champagne region. The jewels of the estate are cultivated in Clos Saint-Hilaire. Producing fruit from half a century of careful cultivation, this hectare of Pinot Noir preciously sheltered by a wall of stone gives birth harvest after harvest to an exceptional champagne of rare complexity and stunning freshness.
Always conscious to improve the quality of their champagne, in the fifties the House established the technique of chilling the must combined with the use of stainless-steel tanks for a longer fermentation at a lower temperature. Over time, the wines conserve their freshness and the aromas intensify, allowing Billecart-Salmon champagnes to deliver all they promise.
During the 17th century, Pierre Billecart, winemaker and ancestor of Nicolas François Billecart, was hailed by King Louis XIII who authorised him to create his own coat of arms. Thus, when Billecart-Salmon was born in 1818 from union of the Billecart family to the Salmon family, his descendants proudly reinstated them.
In 1999, the prestige cuvée Nicolas François Billecart 1959 was chosen as ‘Champagne of the Millennium’ by a committee of experts at a blind tasting session in Stockholm involving 150 vintages from the most illustrious champagne producers, organised by Richard Juhlin, a great champagne specialist. The 1961 vintage, for its part, came second. In 2011, to celebrate 50 years of this exceptional vintage and to delight the palates of great champagne enthusiasts, an exclusive sale of a limited series of 1961 vintage was released.
