Billecart-Salmon : Le Clos Saint-Hilaire 2009

Billecart-Salmon’s 2009 Le Clos Saint-Hilaire, disgorged in January 2024 with a dosage of two grams per liter, is showing even more impressively than it did when I tasted it with only a year on cork after disgorgement. The bouquet is deep and expressive, revealing notes of dried apricot, pear, blanched almond and orange oil, mingled with cherry plum and a touch of Madagascar vanilla. On the palate, it is medium- to full-bodied and rich yet incisive, its amplitude deftly counterbalanced by racy acidity before culminating in a persistent, citrus-tinged finish that underscores the wine’s fresh, tight-knit profile—enhanced by its non-malolactic style.

Billecart-Salmon's sheltered walled garden of Pinot Noir in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ has really come into its own in 2009, yielding a wine with all the intensity and volume that this cuvée tends to carry, but held in a more juicy, less firmly drawn structure than the preceding vintages. Indeed the soft generosity of 2009 seems to play to this wine's strengths. The end result is the most approachable and downright enjoyable Clos St-Hilaire of recent times, effortlessly carrying all its fruit of fresh fig, dried pear, roasted red plum and apricot kernel with heady baklava notes and darker, complex aromas of sweet walnut and cocoa. There's a very welcome shot of bright, malic acidity which which pulls this expansive, warm-hearted Champagne into focus beautifully.

A toast and old gold aroma, marks this single-vineyard Champagne's impressive age. It is certainly not old, rich with toast and spice with an intense and gorgeous concentration of flavors. It is a magnificent wine, its balance impeccable and perfect to drink now.