Billecart Salmon Nicolas Francois 1996

An evening with friends began with the brilliant 1996 Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Nicolas François Billecart Champagne. With exquisite minerality, laser-like citrus notes, full-bodied intensity, and delicately flavored, this is a superb champagne to drink over the next 5-6 years.

Intense aromas of toasted brioche, apple crumble and apricots with cream plus a drizzle of honey. The palate provides superb concentration of pure apple and stone fruit flavours complimented by a little nuttiness. Very dry and crisp. Long finish adding some chalky / minerality. Still very youthful. Drink now to 2020+. Tasted May 2009.

Fabulous nose combines lemon, orange zest, quinine and steely minerality with suggestions of toffee and brown spices. Wonderfully precise and vivid on the palate, delivering an impression of outstanding concentration and grip with a light touch. Extremely fine-grained Champagne with strong but integrated acidity. As young as this is, it's harmonious from the outset. The building finish is pristine, chewy and extremely long.

The exquisite, well-made 1996 vintage Champagne is a backward, long-term proposition that remains 1-2 years away from its apogee. The medium-bodied 1996 Cuvee Nicolas Francois Billecart possesses tart, crisp, lemon-like notes along with wet rock, pear, honeysuckle, and green apple characteristics. It should last for a decade or more.