Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rose Cuvee Elisabeth Salmon 2012 750ml

This has a lovely copper color with aromas of cloves, spiced apples, raspberries, gingerbread and pastries. Delicious yeasty and spicy undertones. Excellent density and focus, with fine and firm bubbles, yet it’s light on its feet and so fresh. Long, chalky and salty at the end. Chardonnay and pinot noir. 3.8g/L dosage. Drink or hold.

The 2012 Brut Rosé Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon is a very sexy Champagne, but it is also quite reserved, especially within the context of the year. Crushed rose petal, kirsch, white pepper, slate and mint are all beautifully delineated in a sculpted, taut Rosé. Its finest drinking belongs to the future. Dosage is 3.8 grams per liter. Disgorged: January 2023.

Vibrant light coral colored with glints of rose gold, the 2012 Elizabeth Salmon Brut Rosé is a youthfully exuberant 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir blend coming from 85% Grand Cru and 15% Premier Cru vineyards in the exceptional 2012 vintage. 97% cold-fermented in stainless steel with a small 3% barrel vinified red, it underwent partial malo-lactic fermentation and was finished to Extra-Brut with a 3.8 grams per liter of dosage. Aromatically coy at first, it opens to alluring notes of dried blood orange slices, apricot coulis, Meyer lemon wafers with a whiff of butterscotch and white cardamom. Crisp and finely textured, the light to medium-bodied palate laces up a subtle intensity of citrus peel, morello red cherry, and hints of ruby red grapefruit with an exuberant acid vibrancy that animates the pinpoint, shimmery mousse. No doubt a very bright, coquettish 12-year-old at the moment, this 2012 Elizabeth Salmon is enjoyable but will take on more grace and even more personality with age. Disgorged in the first quarter of 2023. Drink now to 2040. Tasted June, 2024.

Sleek and elegant, with a seamless knit, this is finely textured, with the raw silk–like mousse carrying flavors of peach skin, white cherry and toast point that show hints of white blossoms, pickled ginger and oyster shell through the lasting finish. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Disgorged winter-spring 2023 (My Origin 121234). Drink now through 2035.

#86 in Top 100 Cellar Selection, 2024. First produced in 1988 and made only in top years, this Champagne is named after the producer's founder. With age (more than nine years on lees), it has developed a patina of toastiness and roundness. There is a toasty character that chimes with this fine wine's crisp texture. Drink now. (Cellar Selection)