Awards and Accolades

10/10 - Champagne Guide 2014 – 15.

Tyson Stelzer:

“Billecart uses its own cultured yeasts (from natural yeasts of nearby villages) and its ferments are colder than most – a crucial element in retaining freshness and delicacy. (Cellar Master Francois) Domi showed us one hundred, forty hectolitre tanks individually temperature controlled to ferment at a chilling thirteen degrees. At such a low temperature, it takes until late November for the primary fermentation to complete.
Old barrels are used for the fermentation of all grand cru fruit (he sources used Burgundy barrels that have seen six or seven fermentations) and barrel stirring is conducted weekly, according to taste. All parcels for the non-vintage blends go through malolactic fermentation, but for the vintage wines this depends upon the vintage. Dosage levels are low, 8g/L of sweetness in the non-vintage wines and just 4g/L in the vintages. This places the vintage wines firmly in “Extra Brut” (extra dry) territory. Any more sweetness might start to play havoc with such delicate styles.
Billecart’s non-vintage wines are aged for three-and-a-half to four years and its Millésime collection for a minimum of eight to ten years (the 1999 Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart is still in the cellar).

The final nuance of detail comes at disgorgement – every cuvée has a different liqueur at Billecart. Domi conducts many tastings with different dosages, from wines aged in barrel and those in tank, to determine which best suits each wine. Finally, and importantly, all the non-vintage wines have been sealed with DIAM cork since 2006. No cork taint!”