Billecart-Salmon Clos Saint-Hilaire Prestige

Clos Saint-Hilaire is sourced from a 0.95-hectare clos planted to Pinot Noir behind the family cellars in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ. The vines are worked without herbicides or chemical fertilisers — by horse plough for some of the rows — and yields are kept low.

The wine is a single-vineyard, single-vintage, single-variety Blanc de Noirs, vinified partially in oak and aged on lees for around a decade before disgorgement. The first vintage was 1995, released in 2005, and only a few thousand bottles are made of each declared vintage. It is the house's prestige cuvée in everything but name (the official prestige line being Cuvée Nicolas-François and Cuvée Elisabeth Salmon).