Salon
About Champagne Salon
Salon is probably the most prestigious house in Champagne. Unlike other houses, Salon makes just one prestige cuvée, which is made entirely from Chardonnay from the village Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Making champagnes solely from Chardonnay, Salon was founded in 1911 by Eugène Aimé Salon, who held a firm belief that Chardonnay grapes from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger were best suited for champagne production without the need for Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier.
Viniculture
Salon released its first commercial vintage in 1921 and since then, only 37 vintages had been released under the Salon label during exceptional years, each no more than 60,000 bottles produced, while undeclared vintages are released under the Salon-Delamotte label after Salon was acquired by Laurent-Perrier in 1989. Today, Salon’s best grapes come from it’s own 1-hectare vineyard named Jardin de Salon, while the rest of the grapes come from contract growers within Le Mesnil-sur-Oger.
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James Suckling (97)
This is phenomenal with mineral, sliced apple and honeysuckle aromas and flavors. It's full-bodied and so refined. Racy and intense. So youthful and long. Like a great and fresh Batard-Montrachet. Long life to go.Inc. VAT£1,211.60 -
James Suckling (97)
This is phenomenal with mineral, sliced apple and honeysuckle aromas and flavors. It's full-bodied and so refined. Racy and intense. So youthful and long. Like a great and fresh Batard-Montrachet. Long life to go.Inc. VAT£7,339.24 -
Wine Advocate (100)
Disgorged in January 2019 with six grams per liter dosage, Salon's 2008 Brut Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil is a striking wine, unwinding in the glass with scents of citrus oil, fresh bread, crisp green apple, white flowers, smoke and oyster shell. Full-bodied, layered and incisive, it's deep and concentrated, with a tightly coiled core of fruit that's underpinned by a racy spine of acidity. Seamless and unerringly precise, it concludes with a long and penetratingly mineral finish. Immense though its potential for aging is, its intensity and balance make it pleasurable as well as persuasive, even today. Given the eye-watering price of this magnum-only release, I was determined to hold the wine to the highest possible standards, but it surpasses even the prodigious 1996 and surely ranks as the finest Salon since at least the 1970s. In short, this is a Blanc de Blancs that admits no argument.Inc. VAT£5,886.41 -
Wine Advocate (95)
From a recently released bottle disgorged in 2018, the 1997 Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil Brut is showing very well indeed, offering up aromas of citrus oil, crushed chalk, white flowers, warm bread and iodine that are appreciably more youthful than the more mature dried fruit tones that readers will find in bottles of the original disgorgement. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, tensile and incisive, with superb concentration, chalky structure and a long, searingly mineral finish. The 2018 disgorgement saw 3.5 grams per liter dosage, somewhat less than the original release. While the 1996 has the edge, I doubt that, 20 years ago, anyone could have imagined how close the 1997 and 1996 would be as they approach maturity.Inc. VAT£1,714.40
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James Suckling (97)
This is phenomenal with mineral, sliced apple and honeysuckle aromas and flavors. It's full-bodied and so refined. Racy and intense. So youthful and long. Like a great and fresh Batard-Montrachet. Long life to go.In Bond£1,007.00 -
James Suckling (97)
This is phenomenal with mineral, sliced apple and honeysuckle aromas and flavors. It's full-bodied and so refined. Racy and intense. So youthful and long. Like a great and fresh Batard-Montrachet. Long life to go.In Bond£6,100.00 -
Wine Advocate (100)
Disgorged in January 2019 with six grams per liter dosage, Salon's 2008 Brut Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil is a striking wine, unwinding in the glass with scents of citrus oil, fresh bread, crisp green apple, white flowers, smoke and oyster shell. Full-bodied, layered and incisive, it's deep and concentrated, with a tightly coiled core of fruit that's underpinned by a racy spine of acidity. Seamless and unerringly precise, it concludes with a long and penetratingly mineral finish. Immense though its potential for aging is, its intensity and balance make it pleasurable as well as persuasive, even today. Given the eye-watering price of this magnum-only release, I was determined to hold the wine to the highest possible standards, but it surpasses even the prodigious 1996 and surely ranks as the finest Salon since at least the 1970s. In short, this is a Blanc de Blancs that admits no argument.In Bond£4,900.00 -
Wine Advocate (95)
From a recently released bottle disgorged in 2018, the 1997 Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil Brut is showing very well indeed, offering up aromas of citrus oil, crushed chalk, white flowers, warm bread and iodine that are appreciably more youthful than the more mature dried fruit tones that readers will find in bottles of the original disgorgement. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, tensile and incisive, with superb concentration, chalky structure and a long, searingly mineral finish. The 2018 disgorgement saw 3.5 grams per liter dosage, somewhat less than the original release. While the 1996 has the edge, I doubt that, 20 years ago, anyone could have imagined how close the 1997 and 1996 would be as they approach maturity.In Bond£1,426.00