2006 Billecart-Salmon 'Clos Saint-Hilaire' Blanc de Noirs Brut Champagne

Winemaker Notes:  This cuvée Blanc de Noirs vinified in oak casks allows the richness of the terroir and the purity of the wine to express itself. This rare vintage of incredible typicity will live on for future decades with strength and elegance.

The magic of a terroir blended with expertise and ancestral know-how, reveals a deep yellow gold hue, underlined by intensely golden reflections. The graceful effervescence of fine bubbles softened by the patina of time. A noble, racy expression with an extremely complex, vinous impact on the nose (touch of biscuit, fresh roasted hazelnuts, white pepper). A refined development highlighting the scintillating concentrations of ripe and intense fruit (nuts and sweet spices). The ample and imposing texture, with hints of citrus fruit flesh and pears in syrup (candied lemon zest, mandarin pulp), emerges against a base note of panettone. With a richness bursting with flavors (puffed buckwheat and precious wood), the wine is carried by a fullness of taste with bewitching charm culminating in a deliciously chalky root mineral.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

James Suckling - "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."