Champagne Billecart-Salmon perfectly paired with stylish Signal Restaurant Brunch creations!

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Billecart-Salmon is a medium-sized champagne house creating prestige Cuvée champagne, which was founded almost a hundred years ago with the marriage of Nicolas François Billecart and Elisabeth Salmon. Yesterday we had the divine pleasure to enjoy an unusual Brunch created by Chef Malika van Reenen at Signal Restaurant at the Cape Grace.

The Brunch was hosted by Ken Forrester, who imports the Champagne, storing it in the
temperature-controlled warehouse on his wine estate, and then is distributed nationally by Meridian. Key retailers stock the brand, including Norman Goodfellows, Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar, and interestingly Makro, both in Midrand and in Silverlakes in Pretoria. Top five-star hotels and top calibre restaurants stock the brand on their wine lists. Ken said that they have some private clients too, buying directly from them.

Ken introduced the brand to us, and said that the grapes are picked somewhat under-ripe, the acidity giving structure without aggression. We drank the Billecart-Salmon Brut Réserve as a welcome drink, a blend of three vintages as a minimum, guaranteeing consistency. It is a blend of Pinot a noir, achardonnay, and Pinot Meunièr. Ken had met Antoine Billecart at a Wine Fair eighteen years ago, and tried to assist in finding a local agent for them in our country. Those he approached declined, as Moët et Chandon was the benchmark for Champagne for them, having done excellent marketing for the whole Champagne category. Ken took on the challenge to represent the Billecart-Salmon brand, based purely on a handshake, he said proudly. The company produces 1 million bottles per annum, of which about 24000 are sold locally.

At the table the Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé and Blanc de Blancs was poured into Burgundy glasses, showing the champagnes off to their best advantage. The Rosé is made almost like a white wine, with a blush, being fresh and light, and has been a runaway success, being sold on allocation. It is a blend of achardonnay Pinot Meunière, and Pinot Noir. The Blanc de Blancs is made with achardonnay grapes from five Grand Cru vineyards. Both the Billecart-Salmon champagnes are NV.

Ken spoke about having had a trial testing of Chef Malika’s dishes last week, and had encouraged her to not hold back on flavor in her food. He invited us to not be too concerned about which of the champagnes to drink with the dishes to come.

On arrival we were served an attractive looking ‘Super Food’ in a small glass, consisting of coconut porridge, chia seed, toasted almonds, kiwi, pineapple, and strawberries.

This was as far as the breakfast part of Brunch went, looking more like lunch thereafter. The menu promised spoiling, and we waited in anticipation to see Chef Malika’s surprise dishes.

Our ‘starter’ course was a clever collection of four items on a platter: the first one I tried was the foie gras macaroon, a lovely combination of sweet
and savory. The brioche with mushrooms, quail egg and truffled Hollandaise sauce was attractive and delicious. For the Gorgonzola Gougère with caramelized pecan croustillant I had to refer to Google, explained as crispy and crunchy cheese puffs, which they were. The colour of the mustard panna cotta with salmon tartare, pickled beetroot and rye Melba crisps, matched the Brut Rosé perfectly.

Our ‘main course’ was a trio of pork: a most unusual barbecue pork belly with
caramelized apples wrapped in a pancake; confit pork belly served with seared scallop, vanilla sweet potato purée and yummy crackling; as well as a beautifully flavored Miso pork broth, which was poured at the table by Sommelier Martin Drotsky.

We loved the ‘dessert’, even enthused about by Ken, being a vanilla cheesecake, with
hazelnut crumble, mango cremeaux, pineapple marmalade, and exotic fruit sorbet, an amazing medley of flavours.

We enjoyed a wonderful start to the day at the Cape Grace, with the excellent Brunch crafted by Chef Malika and the excellent Champagne Billecart-Salmon. Chef Malika said that it was an honor for her to prepare the Brunch for such superb Champagnes, not without its challenges in running a busy hotel kitchen. I sat next to Woolworths’ Allan Mullins, and enjoyed chatting to him, and to Ken, sitting on my other side.

Disclosure: We received a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs with our media pack.

Billecart-Salmon, via Ken Forrester Wines, 96 Winery Road, Stellenbosch. Tel (021) 855-2374. www.champagne-billecart.fr. Twitter : @_Billecart