Founded in 1818 the Billecart family has lived in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ since the mid-sixteenth century. The House was established when Nicolas-François Billecart married Elisabeth Salmon. The Grande Marque quickly established an international reputation with a US subsidiary being set up in the early 1840′s. Russia became the company’s major export market but this trade collapsed after the 1917 revolution. Eight years later the decision was made to sell off the firm’s vineyards and the money raised was invested in the winery and cellars.

The fifth generation of the family still own and run the company today. The style of House – less ‘dosage’ and quality fruit ageing for longer on the lees….the wines; light, fragrant and full flavoured with great complexity and longevity…..

This featured Champagne is the Billecart Rose….a truly romantic Champagne. A pale pink colour adorned with glints of gold – fine notes of red strawberries with a biscuity and creamy finish.

 Grape Variety: 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay. To start off the Christmas festivities…click here to order.

 We also have 3 more great Champagnes from Billecart Salmon to entice you;

1. Billecart Brut Reserve - Tasting Notes: 41% Pinot Meunier, 34% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay 40% of Reserve Wines are used, aged for a minimum of 4 years – reflections of bright yellow, floral freshness, lemony, mouth filling taste of ripe pears.   Click here to order

2. Billecart-Salmon Grand Cru Blanc de Blanc - Tasting Notes: Issued from five Grand Cru of Côte des Blancs, Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oger, and a blend of two different years. Light gold – aromas of white greengages. Well evolved finishing with a citrus minerally freshness.  Click here to order

3. 1998 Grand Cru Vintage Billecart-Salmon - Tasting Notes: The quest for “finesse, balance and elegance” has always guided the making of the Billecart-Salmon Champagnes. Made from 100% Chardonnay with a 9/10 rating for the 1998 vintage. Luminous gold colour, revealing citrus, fresh almonds, gingerbread and white chocolate on a palate of rich fruits with apple and lychee -  a true masterpiece.   Click here to order.

We don’t pretend to stock the mundane Moet Chandon champagne or Lanson champagne – we specialise in Louis Roederer champagne, Veuve Clicquot vintage champagne, Laurent Perrier Rosé champagne, Bollinger champagne, Vintage Dom Perignon champagne, Krug champagne, Louis Roederer Cristal and Krug Clos du Mesnil …for all your champagne gifts and to buy champagne online, please visit our website.

Taste the difference with Vin Vino Direct… exclusive online wine merchants with a huge selection of specialist, fine and rare wines from around the world – we have wines from boutique growers that you cannot find from any other online wine merchant.

We have one of the largest collections of French claret wines in the UK…plus, an amazing range of Italian fine wines and French fine wines. We carry wines covering over 66 grape varieties, including the favourites of Shiraz, Merlot, Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Cabernet and Pinot Grigio – all available to buy online for your wine cellar today. We are internationally accredited as Bordeaux specialists and renowned for our exclusive and unique fine wines online at all prices.
For those special wine gifts we have a large range of champagne, wine gift vouchers and mixed cases of wine
With an original portfolio of boutique wine making growers, we are the only online wine merchant in the UK offering these exclusive wines to you. Buy wine online with Vin Vino Direct and tantalise your taste buds today…

Love of wine is something which is passed on from father to son, from one generation to the next. In fact there are documents to prove that the Motta family have been wine makers since 1794; and are therefore proud to show their experience and traditions by presenting today, just as they have done in the past, the very best of Piedmontese wine making.  These wines, which are produced according to traditional and consistent winemaking methods, are selected at the right moment, matured in oak casks, and at the point when they reach the correct degree of maturity they are bottled and stored.

This 1997 Indré  Castello di Montegrosso is from the Piemonte region –  Castello di Montegrosso is the only azienda which produces this rare red wine “‘Indré”. Produced from the grapes of the same name together with other rare varieties grown in Piedmont in the Middle Ages, rediscovered & cultivated exclusively by Castello di Montegrosso.

The wine – It is an original wine of exceptional nose, harmoniously blended, generous and rich, elegant and lingering with traces of Lily-of-the-Valley and almonds. The flavours are enhanced, warm and velvety – an attractive ruby red colour , a sensational bouquet of dark red berries and a taste of fruit and truffle. 

To view this fantastic Italian fine wine – click here to order

Tasting Notes
The dark ruby colour reveals a young fruity wine with a bouquet of raspberries. Medium bodied and fresh it has a pleasing good firmness to the fruit-filled finish.

One of our favourite wines for enjoying with simple Italian Pizza and Pasta dishes, uplifting with a good weight – well made and value for money….

To buy this wine today  click here

Fine Wine Online

To extract the maximum pleasure out of a glass of wine, you have to taste rather than drink it. That is not to say you have to go through the rather daunting ritual of sucking and slurping practised by professional tasters, but you do need to do more than simply pour it down your throat…unfortunately!

In fact, even the word ‘tasting’ is misleading because what is much more important than taste is smell. It is the nose that picks up the individual flavour compounds from the 10,000-odd different combinations that can be perceived. The mouth – or rather the tongue – is only capable of detecting saltiness, sweetness, acidity and bitterness.

Most people have a natural preference for sweetness and dislike bitterness. The taste for sharp, tart flavours is acquired, which is why the majority of drinkers start off liking sweet, white wines then develop a taste for drier ones, and only eventually come to enjoy full-bodied reds. Your own preferences are also likely to evolve over the years in the same way as you might graduate from drinking your coffee with milk and two sugars to preferring a strong blast of double espresso. When you first start drinking, you’re likely to be drawn to the simple upfront fruit of young wines, particularly those from the New World. After a while, the subtler, more complex flavours and finer, silkier textures of older wines become more satisfying. And considering the huge variation in the number of taste buds people have and how they are distributed (some people have much more closely clustered taste buds than others), it’s surprising there’s not more variation in the wines that appeal to us and those that don’t.

Much of what is understood by ‘having a good palate’ is simply possessing the vocabulary to describe what you’re tasting. People don’t necessarily expect to find flavours such as butter, honey or toast in wine. As you become a more experienced taster, you develop what the professionals call a ‘palate memory’, meaning that you begin to recognise in wine flavours that you’ve come across before and link them with other wines you’ve tasted – this is how the professionals, who have developed this capacity, perform well in blind tastings.

The taste of a wine can also be affected by what you eat with it, which is why tasters only eat plain water biscuits when they’re tasting. If you want to experiment for yourself, try a sip of red wine after nibbling a piece of cheese. Then try the same wine after a slice of apple. See how the food exaggerates the characteristics of the wine and corrupts your palate.

If you want to practise honing your taste buds at home, there are four stages to focus on, that is, after you’ve poured your wine into a decent-sized glass, remembering not to fill it more than half-full. First, you should take a look at the wine to check that it’s clear and bright. The intensity and depth of colour will also give you a clue to its strength although wines do alter with age – whites become darker and reds tend to fade.

White Wine

Swirl the wine in the glass, then stick your nose in and sniff. This will tell you whether or not the wine is faulty and reveal its character. If you are tasting a chardonnay, for example, this step will reveal whether it tastes of citrus or tropical fruit.

Next, take a sip, hold it in your mouth for a moment and swallow. This will tell you more about the texture or ‘mouthfeel’ of the wine – whether it’s sharp or smooth – than what we think of as the flavour. If you want to maximise this experience, suck air over your tongue as you hold the wine in your mouth. You will make some very professional-sounding slurping noises, and it is this technique that helps to release the wine’s flavours and aromas.

Finally, remember to take note of any aftertaste. Good wines have what’s known in the trade as a long finish – the flavour lingers on and on. And you shouldn’t deprive yourself of the pleasure by moving on too quickly to the next mouthful…..