Billecart Salmon 2009 Extra Brut Champagne 95 Points

Robert Parker 95 Points: “Disgorged with two grams per liter dosage, Billecart-Salmon’s 2009 Extra Brut Vintage is more giving and demonstrative than its 2008 counterpart, offering up inviting aromas of crisp stone fruit, yellow apple, brioche, honeycomb, and warm pastry. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with a pillowy mousse and a generous core of fruit girdled by bright acids, it’s seamless and complete. Indeed, such is its charm and persistence that I tend to prefer it, at least for now, to the 2008.”

Wine & Spirits 95 Points: “A majority of red grapes (40 percent Pinot Noir and 27 percent Meunier) from a majority of Grands Crus (73 percent) make up this pan-regional blend. Vinified in stainless steel, it has maintained freshness over the course of long aging on the lees, presenting brisk, cool flavors of lime zest, star fruit, and pear. That fruit complexity lasts, while the textural pleasure brings you back for another sip.”

Winemaker Notes: “An ideal blend allowing the personality of the Champagne region’s great Pinot Noirs to dominate, combined with the elegance and subtlety of Chardonnays and that signature touch of Pinot Meunier. The yellow color has soft golden undertones, naturally enhanced by a fine, dynamic effervescence. A shining, very radiant effect that brings out the full potential of nine years of maturation in our ancestral chalk cellars. The delicious intensity of precise fruit with citrusy and nutty notes (grapefruit pulp, slivered almonds). A nuanced sensory development built around pastry scents (raw butter, white fruit jelly). A masterful aromatic expression with a refined, refreshing purity. A nervy, charming, tactile delight (chestnut cream, fresh blueberries, and shortbread), emphasized by a delicate texture. The wine rises to a distinguished complexity with a persistent finale, crisply structured by the high-quality potential of such a sought-after vintage. A deeply sculpted vintage with a noble, exquisitely distinctive character.

Enjoy to the fullest with red tuna, papaya, and avocado, or with pan-fried foie gras, peaches, verbena, rhubarb, and verjuice (prematurely harvested grape juice).

Blend: 40% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay, and 27% Pinot Meunier”