Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut "Le Clos St. Hilaire" 2005
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98
Vinous
Sublime, silky and understated…A model of class. […] A Champagne of refinement more than power.
Richly complex nose of spiced yellow plums, brioche, toasted lemons, butterscotch, baked apples, strawberries, coffee cream, praline, earthy mushroom and truffle hints. It’s creamy, layered and generous, with soft bubbles. Complex toasty and spicy elements carry through to a long finish. Opulence and sophistication. Single parcel pinot noir, 100% vinified in oak barrels. No malo. 1g/l dosage. Drink now or hold.
This beautifully balanced single-vineyard Champagne is ripe with Pinot Noir and intense. Its richness shows in the yeasty character in the background of the wine’s maturity.
A fragrant, appealing Champagne, with wafts of elderflower and medicinal herbs on the nose, followed by expressive flavors […]. Fresh and focused, with a satiny mousse and a salty finish of oyster shell and chalk.
Disgorged at the end of 2019 with a dosage of one gram per liter, Billecart-Salmon’s 2005 Brut Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is the eighth edition (the release sequence is 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2005; Mathieu Roland-Billecart released this vintage after the 2006, to give it more time to mature in bottle.) This 100% Pinot Noir from the single vineyard in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ has a bright, vibrant, fresh nose of orchard fruits, dried fruits, nuts, pastry and spices. The palate is tense, delicate and medium-bodied and evokes notes of white pepper and chalk with a saline finish and a gently bitter aftertaste due to the vintage. It’s a little more austere than the 2006 vintage but precise and crystalline.
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Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut "Le Clos St. Hilaire" 2006
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98
Vinous
The 2006 Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is fabulous. In this radiant year, the Clos Saint Hilaire has a touch more mid-palate sweetness and generosity, but that’s a good thing, as it balances some of the more austere leanings that can make young vintages hard to appreciate upon release. Apricot, lemon confit, ginger, graphite, spice and crushed rocks are strands in a gorgeous, captivating tapestry that dazzles right out of the gate. The precision here is just mindblowing. Billecart’s 2006 Clos Saint-Hilaire is a very special Champagne, that much is very clear.
Baked raspberries, salted yellow plums, figs, walnuts, orange zest, mahogany and some toasted vanilla on the nose. Medium-to full-bodied with beautifully integrated, very fine bubbles. Dry, with exciting and unique white-pepper and sea-salt notes. Seamless. So harmonious. Salty and spicy clove notes evolving at the end. Amazing precision. Single parcel pinot noir, 100% vinified in oak barrels. No malo. 2g/l dosage. Disgorged November 2020. 6,750 bottles. Drink or hold.
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.
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Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut "Le Clos St. Hilaire" 2007
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98
Decanter
The 2007, though, presents a different accent to the previous two releases, with a ripe and punchy fruit. The hallmarks of the wine are very much there, with plenty of signs of maturity.
Beautifully complex and mineral with notes of chalk, blanched almonds, dried raspberries, rose petals, pink grapefruit, nutmeg and pink peppercorns. Complex, tight and structured, with a medium to full body, plenty of strength yet elegant. Tight bubbles. Long, firm and savory. Single parcel pinot noir, 100% vinified in oak barrels. No malo. Disgorged May 2023. 3.8g/L dosage. Drink or hold.
The 2007 Extra Brut Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is shockingly accessible for a young vintage of this wine. Silky and plush, with terrific depth, the 2007 is already quite accessible. Kirsch, plum, dried flowers, chamomile and dried herbs build, filling out the layers effortlessly. I can’t remember tasting a Clos Saint-Hilaire that is this wine-like. White flowers, chalk, mint and white pepper open with air, adding palpable freshness to a core of chiseled Pinot fruit. In a word: dazzling. Dosage is 2 grams per liter. Disgorged: second trimester 2023.
Disgorged in May 2023 with a dosage of two grams per liter, Billecart-Salmon’s 2007 Le Clos Saint-Hilaire continues to perform admirably. It unfurls in the glass with an expressive bouquet of pear, mirabelle plum and cherry, mingled with notes of lemon oil and a subtle accent of timut pepper. Medium- to full-bodied, elegantly muscular and vinous, the wine is both concentrated and ample, underpinned by incisive acidity. The palate culminates in a long, citrus-inflected finish that underscores the cuvée’s non-malolactic style. One should anticipate a profile more tightly knit than that of the warmer-vintage 2006 and 2009. As ever, it is sourced from a walled 0.97-hectare vineyard in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ that was planted in 1964, and it was vinified entirely in oak; in 2007, the fruit was harvested on September 8.
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Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut "Le Clos St. Hilaire" 2008
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100
Vinous
The 2008 Extra Brut Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is one of the most exceptional wines I have tasted at this address. Proprietor Mathieu Roland-Billecart and Chef de Caves Florent Nys gave the 2008 two additional years on the lees, opting to release the 2009 first. That decision paid off handsomely. Kirsch, tangerine peel and hazelnut are some of the many notes that grace the palate. The 2008 is magnificent today, but it will be even better with a few more years in bottle. Unforgettable. Dosage is 2.5 grams per liter. Disgorged: August 2025.
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Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut "Le Clos St. Hilaire" 2009
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98
Vinous
The 2009 Extra Brut Le Clos Saint-Hilaire is stellar. I can’t remember a young Clos Saint-Hilaire with this much sheer immediacy. Then again, we are talking about 2009. Blood orange, spice, gingerbread and new leather play off a core of vibrant, red-toned Pinot fruit. Blocking the malolactic fermentation further emphasizes energy. The 2009 finishes with mindblowing purity and exceptional finesse. This is the first vintage with some of the production bottled in magnum. The essence of Pinot. Dosage is 2 grams per liter. Disgorged: January 2024.
This Champagne is wonderfully rich on the nose, seducing with aromas of delicious yellow nectarines, sourdough, applesauce, white flowers and raspberries, alongside toast, tobacco and a hint of white truffles. It’s layered and generous with very fine, very soft bubbles. Already approachable, yet with subtle power and bright acidity to age for a long time. Fantastic length. Pinot noir from an enclosed, 1-hectare parcel of vines in Mareuil-sur-Ay planted in 1964. No malolactic. Over 13 years on the lees. 2 g/L dosage. Drink or hold.
Billecart-Salmon’s 2009 Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, disgorged in January 2024 with a dosage of two grams per liter, is showing even more impressively than it did when I tasted it with only a year on cork after disgorgement. The bouquet is deep and expressive, revealing notes of dried apricot, pear, blanched almond and orange oil, mingled with cherry plum and a touch of Madagascar vanilla. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied and rich yet incisive, its amplitude deftly counterbalanced by racy acidity before culminating in a persistent, citrus-tinged finish that underscores the wine’s fresh, tight-knit profile—enhance by its non-malolactic style.
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