It’s all in the name at Bil­le­­cart-Salmon, the Cham­pagne house found­ed in 1818 by new­ly­weds Nico­las François Bil­le­cart and Elis­a­beth Salmon. Orig­i­nal­ly assist­ed by her oenol­o­gist broth­er, the cou­ple passed the lega­cy on and, despite the tumults of his­to­ry, it is con­tin­ued today by sev­enth gen­er­a­tion Math­ieu.
The fam­i­ly is most proud of its pris­tine gar­den sur­round­ing the main house in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ, both of which were redesigned in the 1920s, but there is plen­ty to be seen both under­ground and out in the vine­yards, too. Not least the enclosed ‘Clos Saint Hilaire,’ a pres­ti­gious one-hectare plot plant­ed pure­ly to Pinot Noir that pro­duces its own, huge­ly sought-after Blanc de Noirs cuvée (each bot­tle is num­bered indi­vid­u­al­ly). This patch epit­o­mis­es Billecart-Salmon’s com­mit­ment to envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty and, with most of their prac­tices now cer­ti­fied as organ­ic or sus­tain­able, they hope to attain cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for 100% of their land by 2025. This atten­tive­ness to ter­roirs also helps to pro­duce the pure and grace­ful wines for which the house has become known.