Wine Advisor
Billecart Salmon, Cuvee Elisabeth Salmon Brut Rose 2008
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: William Kelley
Disgorged with seven grams per liter dosage, the 2008 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon is one of the finest wines I've tasted from Billecart in recent years. Unwinding in the glass with aromas of peach, mandarin oil, warm bread, red berries and petals, it's full-bodied, deep and vinous, with lovely mid-palate amplitude, terrific concentration and bright girdling acids. In what is quite a tightly wound vintage and from a house whose style is rather understated, this is a dramatic, fleshy wine that concludes with a long, flavorful finish.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2008 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon explodes from the glass with a mesmerizing array of aromas, flavors and textures. Blood orange, cinnamon, mint and dried flowers. The 2008 is incredibly young, but it is also incredibly tempting. Patience will be rewarded. In the meantime, readers might enjoy adding a few bottles of the stellar 2007 to their cellars, as the nervy, taut 2008 needs time. The 2008 is 55% Pinot Noir (from Aÿ, Verzy, Verzenay and Mareuil) and 45% Chardonnay (from Chouilly, Avize and Cramant), with 9% still wine from Mareuil. It is the first vintage that includes a portion of wines (17%) done in barrel and the first vintage in which the magnums were aged on the cork rather than on crown seal. Dosage is 7 grams per liter. (Originally published in May 2021)
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2008 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon explodes from the glass with a mesmerizing array of aromas, flavors and textures. Blood orange, cinnamon, mint and dried flowers. The 2008 is incredibly young, but it is also incredibly tempting. Patience will be rewarded. In the meantime, readers might enjoy adding a few bottles of the stellar 2007 to their cellars, as the nervy, taut 2008 needs time. The 2008 is 55% Pinot Noir (from Aÿ, Verzy, Verzenay and Mareuil) and 45% Chardonnay (from Chouilly, Avize and Cramant), with 9% still wine from Mareuil. It is the first vintage that includes a portion of wines (17%) done in barrel and the first vintage in which the magnums were aged on the cork rather than on crown seal. Dosage is 7 grams per liter.
About the Producer
Founded by Nicolas François Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon in 1818, Billecart-Salmon is one of the few Champagne houses to be owned and managed by the original family. Today, François and Antoine Roland-Billecart continue the family legend, hand-crafting delicate and elegant wines with crystal-clear fidelity, using a technique of cool long fermentation pioneered by the house in 1952. All of the base wines go through a cold settling at 8℃ and a very cold fermentation just under 13℃ that takes between three weeks and a month, which is a longer time frame than other producers. This practice was initiated in 1958, making Billecart-Salmon the first and the only Champagne house to do so at present. One of the highlights of the house is the cuvée created as a tribute to the house’s founders. The Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is generous, fine and rich, sourced exclusively from the grands crus of Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims.
