Vanessa

9.2

Champagne Billecart-Salmon, Brut, Sous Bois -- ‘sous bois’ meaning ‘under wood’ in French, because this wine was vinified entirely in oak. It’s a blend of the three primary varieties of this region – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. 🇫🇷

If you enjoy bubbles as well as oak influence on your wine, you’ll love this beauty. It offers confectionary aromas with notes such as ripe apple, pear tart, toasted almond, croissant, brioche, and marzipan. It has bountiful richness and complexity and is absolutely delicious. 🙌🙌

We are grateful to have tasted this wine on a tour at Billecart-Salmon in Champagne last year and brought this bottle home with us. We’re grateful to see it’s available locally, as well.

🍾🥂 Cheers! — 6 months ago

with Deked1

Layne Eaton

9.5

Layne had this 2 years ago

Aaron Tan

9.4

@Dominik SonaYou're the best! Walks off into the cellar, comes out carrying a massive bottle in a sleeve that could barely cover the label. I just love how ridiculous magnum riesling bottles look! I mean, we could see that it's a Koehler-Ruprecht for sure and the table shot straight to a warm vintage on the first sip (warm finish). Didn't take long for Franzi to identify the vintage and the rest of the pieces fell together subsequently (the body = spatlese, forget identifying the "R"). Guess making wines at the winery itself helps 😂

What to say about this wine? It's pretty intense, but the acidity and minerals kept it in check. Finely strung with pitch-perfect tension. This is the kind of wine that needs very little to push it over the edge into the hedonistic territory. Begs for time (like other 09's), as it's true elegance only revealed itself with air (bring on the crushed rocks and chamomile!). The nose is deep, with exotic fruit aromas, flint, toasted almond, florals, and that classic KR funk. Immense palate with lots of lychee and grapefruit, plus superb minerality with air. Creamy and long finish. Yes, the wine finishes a little warm and could be touch more focus, but it's a real class act for 09'! Power without weight, if you ask me. — 3 years ago

Jay Kline

9.3

A couple of weeks back, I opened a bottle of the 2017 that was supposed to be my first impression of the latest release. Ferrando’s Carema “Etichetta Bianca” is one of my favorite wines in Piemonte and, well, it was a false start. It was brown, tasted like it was 30 years old, full of secondary characteristics and lacking any of the elegance or structure I’ve come to expect from these wines year in and year out. The cork appeared to be perfect; not sure what happened. It was just, flat. So, I opened another one of my bottles this weekend to see if I was dealing with a much broader issue. Much to my delight, this bottle was proper.

Tonight, the wine poured a striking, garnet color with a transparent core and a slightly watery rim. No staining of the tears. No signs of sediment. The wine is intense, woodsy, and has the smell of strong BO, spicy but in a good way? Like someone put on a fancy cologne to cover the fact that they haven’t showered in a week. Weird…I know…but trust me. You’ll smell it and then you’ll like it. Red flowers, red fruits like dried cherries and porchini too. On the palate, the wine is dry with high tannin and medium+ acid. Long finish. Dried cherries, exotic spices and dried herbs. Overall, I got the impression of a round but rustic wine; unique in a way I have come to expect from these wines over the years. I had a little bit left in the bottle that I held over until the next day and it became even more fresh on Day 2. Based off my experience, you can certainly open these now and enjoy with some patience but I think these will benefit from some time in the cellar. Next bottle after 2027. — 7 months ago

Charlene Vacon

9.2

What a delightful light red. If you close your eyes, you’re drinking a white. Soft fruit, light acidity and a sweetness that’s fresh. I had it at room temp this time but I could see putting it on ice in the summer months. — 3 years ago

Brandi Bratek

9.3

I could drink this all day everyday. If you see it, buy it. — 3 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.1

Deep Ruby in colour. Rich and earthy - red and black fruits, sweet plum, a touch of black pepper and an astringent note which persisted. If you like rich, spicy Heathcote Shiraz this will not disappoint. Enough internal fortitude to see this cellar to the late 2020s. Tasted my last bottle 30 weeks later on 5th August with consistent notes. Also a note of dusty chocolate. Medium to full bodied rather than the full bodied full throttle Shiraz you normally get from Heathcote. — 7 months ago

Bob McDonald

9.2

See previous notes. This is the 6th bottle of 6 purchase. The first consumed at the Toowoomba Wine Show Judges dinner 14 months ago and roundly criticised by 2 of the “Brett Nazis” present. Dense Ruby with a tawny rim. Aromas of barnyard, dried plum - sure Brettanomyces is there in a small way, but not a dealbreaker for me. The palate has that same intensely savoury dried plum character with some medicinal notes on a medium weight palate. If you have these drink up before the bandaid sets in. In the early days in the Hunter Valley the Shiraz could often have this “sweaty saddle “ character which was typical at the time and most likely Brett. — 9 months ago

Lauren Taylor

9.0

If you see it, buy this. — 3 years ago

Bill Bender

9.3

I met @Aaron Hamrock on Wednesday and the first wines he shared were a ‘86 Mouton (my Red Wine of the trip), a ‘90 Beausajor a ‘07 Larkmead Lark and this, the holy grail of Spanish wines. Pretty solid intro. This was rich and round but still not fully strutting in my opinion. If the dinner was 2 hours longer and it hadn’t been completely drained it would have been interesting to see where this went. I say hold if you have one, which you probably don’t. — 3 years ago