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Champagne Cuvée Louis Salmon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Extra Brut
The reference point of Billecart-Salmon’s contemporary direction, the 2013 Blanc de Blancs Louis Salmon, disgorged in January 2024 with four grams per liter dosage, stands as the most characterful wine of the new lineup, expressing itself from the glass with aromas of early-blooming white flowers, lemon oil, nashi pear and almond paste mingled with cardamom, oyster shell and freshly baked bread. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied and elegantly muscular, with a tensile core of crystalline purity, racy acids and ample chalky extract. Harvested in October, it derives from the communes of Cramant, Chouilly, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oiry and was vinified entirely in stainless steel with full malolactic fermentation in pursuit of greater harmony in a cool-profile vintage such as this. It is slightly more elegant and simultaneously less powerful than the 2012 rendition, yet it remains equally compelling. Stylistically, it shares certain affinities with the 2008 and 1996 vintages, albeit with more fully realized ripeness.