Billecart Salmon - Brut Le Clos Saint Hilaire 2006 (750ml)
Price: $539.99
| Producer | Billecart Salmon |
| Country | France |
| Region | Champagne |
| Varietal | Pinot Noir |
| Vintage | 2006 |
| Sku | 70694 |
| Size | 750ml |
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Billecart Salmon Description
The Clos Saint-Hilaire is a single parcel where the vines, soil and subsoil are carefully tended with respect for the environment. Several years ago, Billecart-Salmon decided to return to ancestral champagne-making methods in the Clos Saint-Hilaire by using work horses and sheep. This method of maintaining the soil and tending the vines increases porosity and biodiversity: the roots grow deep and the minerals they draw from the soil foster the growth of smaller, more concentrated grapes, revealing the terroir's typical flavour. The Clos Saint-Hilaire has created an exceptional champagne which is named after the patron saint of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. Made exclusively from Pinot Noir vinified in oak casks, it develops an outstanding purity. For each vintage, there is a limited release of between 3,500 to 5,500 individually numbered bottles.
Wine Spectator: 95 Points
This chiseled Champagne is defined by rapierlike acidity, with fine, tightly meshed flavors of plumped white cherry, poached apricot, marzipan, espresso crema, smoked nut and Gran Marnier liqueur that open slowly on a lively, lacy mousse. This shows remarkable freshness for its 16 years. Disgorged November 2020. Drink now through 2036.
Wine Advocate: 95 Points
Disgorged in November 2020 with two grams per liter dosage, Billecart-Salmon's newly released 2006 Brut Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is showing well, unwinding in the glass with aromas of pear, mirabelle plum, dried fruits, walnuts, bee pollen and spices. Full-bodied, layered and vinous, it's a concentrated, muscular young wine, allying maturing flavors with broad structural shoulders and racy acids and concluding with a long, resonant and slightly mordant finish. From a parcel planted in 1964 and vinified entirely in oak, this is a powerful Champagne of considerable presence that needs some more time on cork to unwind and round out.
