Champagne Billecart-Salmon Extra Brut 2013

Billecart-Salmon...200 years of innovation and excellence that has secured their place atop the world of great Champagnes. This vintage cuvee, from the focused purity of the remarkable 2013 vintage, with over 89 months aging on the lees, and now...ready for your next celebration! Over $270 dollars off on a six-pack!

Very limited, folks, and if we’ve learned one firm and fast rule in our years in the wine biz...it’s that Billecart always flies! This is the perfect opportunity to secure your holiday, special occasion, pure celebration bubbles, with an incredible price! Billecart is simply never the wrong call.

This is a family-run empire that has survived and thrived for seven generations, over two centuries, in the heart of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, just outside of Épernay. They own 100 hectares of their own grapes and contract out with some of the greatest growers for another 300 hectares – all spread across 40 Grand Cru sites that all sit within a 20-mile radius of their winery. The glorious chardonnays of the Côte des Blancs, the pinots of Montagne de Reims and Marne Valley...all within their reach and secured over the decades with Champagne’s top growers. Their vintage cuvees get the choice picks of the top lots and this is exactly what this wine is all about!

The blend for this 2013 vintage Extra Brut is 62% pinot noir, 24% chardonnay, and 14% pinot meunier. Since the 1950s, the Billecart-Salmon signature style involves the use of cold settling in tank and cool, slow fermentations of individual parcels. This method encourages lively aromas and elegant fruit profiles to be preserved in the final product – creating a portfolio of wines built around finesse and purity. This serves the vintage cuvees especially well, as their prolonged aging on the lees adds layers of complexity and depth – without overshadowing the fresh expression of Champagne’s best terroirs.

The pale golden wine explodes with a freshness and powerful attack that defies its decade of age, leading strongly with toasted brioche, hazelnuts, lemons, white grapefruits, crushed oyster shells, peaches, cherries, raspberries, and lemon cream, brightened by notes of lemongrass, and a flinty, zippy, salty finish. Long, opulent, and focused, culminating in a harmonious and lengthy finish. This is so good, I’m going to need a magnum just for myself. Six-pack and a magnum? Seems like the way to go, but you do you. Remember, Billecart-Salmon never hangs around for long! To the fastest fingers go the spoils today!

PAIRING IDEAS: I opted for a bottle of this with some tuna tartare. I greased some muffin tins, let them preheat in a 475 oven, and then popped a wonton wrapper into each well, brushed with some oil, and baked for about 8 minutes. Filled the little wonton cups with some ahi tuna – mixed with a bit of sesame oil, ponzu, green onions, and topped with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and micro greens. Perfect bite for a perfect sip!