Billecart-Salmon

History

1. 1818

   A wedding in Mareuil

   Nicolas François Billecart, a lawyer by training, marries Elisabeth Salmon. Both families had lived in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ since the 16th century. The house name is made up of the two surnames, and the division of roles is simple: the bride's brother, Louis Salmon, is in charge of the wine, Nicolas François of sales. Mathieu Roland-Billecart today compares the Champagne of that time to the world of start-ups: one bad vintage could bring a firm down.

2. 1830

   An agent lost across the ocean

   Tom Stevenson describes how an incompetent agent in America exposed the young house to a loss of 100,000 gold francs. Billecart-Salmon survived this blunder, and later economic crises and phylloxera, partly because it sold some of its vineyards in hard years.

3. 1918

   75,000 bottles left after the war

   The First World War brought the century-old house almost to a standstill. After 1918 there were 75,000 bottles left in the cellars. Charles Roland-Billecart rebuilt sales, and by 1936 the house was again shipping around 217,000 bottles a year.

4. 1958

   A lesson from brewers

   The house introduces a method it picked up from brewers: the juice is first cold-settled, then fermented for longer and at a lower temperature than at neighbouring houses. The wine comes out cleaner and fresher. This technique is still a hallmark of Billecart today, and in 1964 the first Cuvée Nicolas François, a tribute to the founder, comes onto the market.

5. 1970

   Taking rosé seriously

   Jean Roland-Billecart decides to make rosé Champagne at a time when it was treated as a whim in Champagne. In time Brut Rosé becomes the wine against which other rosés are measured. In the 1990s the house withdraws from supermarket shelves and focuses on restaurants and specialist shops, and in 1995 it sets aside a hectare of Pinot Noir by the house: this is how Clos Saint-Hilaire is born.

6. 1999

   The Champagne of the millennium

   On 12 June 1999 in Stockholm, an international jury led by Richard Juhlin blind-tasted 150 Champagnes. The winner was Nicolas François Billecart 1959 with 98.5 points out of 100, and second place went to the same Champagne from the 1961 vintage. Third was Gosset 1952, followed by two Dom Pérignons.

7. 2019

   From London to Mareuil

   Mathieu Roland-Billecart, formerly a mergers and acquisitions partner at EY in London, took over the house when his uncle retired. He is the seventh generation of the family to run the firm. In 2021 the house had a turnover of around 70 million euros, with production stable at 2 million bottles.

People

Curiosities

1. Richard Juhlin summed up the winning wine of 1999 in one sentence: “a Champagne completely perfect in its category”. source
2. A magnum of the winning Nicolas François 1959 later sold for 3,300 pounds. source
3. anecdote The house entered two wines for the Stockholm tasting: the 1959 vintage chosen by the father and the 1961, which Antoine Roland-Billecart added himself because it was the year he was born. The birthday wine came second. source
4. Cuvée Columbus 92 was not from the 1992 vintage at all. It was a blend of the 1982, 1985 and 1988 vintages, and today a bottle costs around 2,000 Australian dollars. source
5. The house borrowed the method of long, cool fermentation from brewers. In the 1950s it was a revolution; today many producers use it. source
6. Billecart-Salmon is a member of the Hénokiens association, which brings together family firms from around the world that are at least 200 years old. source
7. After Brexit, British buyers paid around 25% more per bottle, yet the house's sales in the UK did not collapse. The chief executive puts this down to the fact that Billecart's customers “are not very price-sensitive”. source
8. Every blend is approved by an eight-person committee: four family members and four current or former winemakers of the house. source
9. The big houses did not make the podium at the millennium tasting: behind the two Billecarts came Gosset 1952, and only then Dom Pérignon 1964 and 1961. source