NV Billecart-Salmon Rosé Brut Champagne (1.5 L) Magnum

Many Champagne houses make rosé—but only one Champagne house defines it.

Billecart-Salmon’s Brut Rosé is lauded from just about every corner of the wine world. You can order a glass or bottle at practically every top MICHELIN-starred restaurant. 

We think Tyson Stelzer—one of the most respected Champagne experts, author of “The Champagne Guide,” and a contributor to Wine Spectator and Decanter—said it best in his review: “If the greatness of rosé champagne is measured in the fairy-touch of delicacy and the whisper of finesse, Billecart is the greatest. Dollar-for-Champagne-dollar, no other aperitif speaks with such haunting fidelity.”

Billecart-Salmon played a pivotal role in the story of two titans of wine. In his book Reflections of a Wine Merchant, importer Neal Rosenthal recalls the time in 1979 when he went on the hunt for an exclusive Champagne to offer the clients of his New York shop. He eventually found Billecart through the mercurial importer Robert Chadderdon. The bubbly was a hit, and all was hunky-dory between the men for a while. But when the relationship soured, Rosenthal sensed his Champagne diamond in the rough slipping away,  so he went to Mareuil-sur-Aÿ to plead with Billecart’s proprietor face-to-face.

That Neal Rosenthal believed Billecart-Salmon merited an emergency trip abroad speaks volumes of its importance among the upper echelon of Champagne wines. After 200 years of operation, the house is still owned and operated by the Billecart family, and still producing the exquisite bubblies that first seduced US drinkers four decades ago.