Legendary Billecart-Salmon Bubbly
- 96 pts Wine Advocate96 pts RPWA
- 96 pts Wine Enthusiast96 pts WE
- 96 pts Decanter96 pts Decanter
- 94 pts James Suckling94 pts JS
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2006 Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs Cuvee Louis 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
This Wine is the Epitome of Structured, Textured Fruit
This Wine is the Epitome of Structured, Textured Fruit
Roll out the red carpet for the triple 96-point 2006 Champagne Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Louis with all its mouth-watering aromas of apple strudel, freshly baked brioche, alpine flowers, and chalk, opens to a melange of mouth-coating pear, white peach, and citrus fruit with pinpoint mineral precision and tautness.
Wine Enthusiast raved, writing, “With grapes coming from the Chardonnay heartland of the Côte des Blancs, this wine is the epitome of structured, textured fruit but with the essential addition of age.” Decanter awarded the 2006 a second 96-point score calling it “very rich and full, yet with bright.” And Wine Advocate pinned an incredible third 96-point score on this “round and endlessly juicy” stunner.
From one of the world’s foremost Champagne houses, this Blanc de Blancs offers all the scintillating pedigree that you would expect from Grand Cru Chardonnay from Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, and Chouilly. Raised directly from the cool cellars in Champagne, it is drinking perfectly now and will continue to give generously for years to come.
The 2006 Cuvée Louis certainly deserves the star treatment because of its critical acclaim and Grand Cru origins, but there’s more: At Billecart-Salmon, vintage Champagnes like the 2006—an outstanding year—are set to rest for a minimum of a decade before release, allowing for intense, finely delineated flavor development. This is patient, studied, artistry in a bottle.
All this should come as no surprise given the great history of Billecart-Salmon. The importance of this 19th-century estate may be best demonstrated by a story—that of two titans of wine, Neal Rosenthal and Robert Chadderdon. In his book, Reflections of a Wine Merchant, Rosenthal recalls the time in 1979 when he went on the hunt for an exclusive Champagne to offer the clients of his New York shop, eventually finding it through the notoriously mercurial importer Robert Chadderdon.
All was hunky-dory between the men for a short while, and the Champagne was a sensation at Rosenthal’s shop. But then the relationship took a nosedive and Rosenthal soon found himself without as much as a case of Billecart-Salmon. In desperation, Rosenthal went all the way to Mareuil-sur-Aÿ to plead with the proprietor face-to-face. Unfortunately, his cries went unheard, but his endorsement speaks volumes—more even, than a red-hot 96-point score.
After 200 years of operation the house is still owned and operated by the Billecart family, and still producing the exquisite bubblies that seduced, then drove a wedge between two of the most famous figures in U.S. wine importing.