Description
Salon is one of the great names in Champagne for very good reason. It is made only in great vintages (the decade of the eighties only produced ’82, ’83, ’85 and ’88) with the emphasis in the production of this exceptional wine being on the singular. Made by one man, Aime Salon, from grapes from one village, the grand cru of Mesnil (in the Cotes de Blancs). This village grows the most sought after Chardonnay in Champagne. Half of the vineyards that make the wine are owned by Salon outright and the other half come from farmers that Salon has been working with for generations. The vines average 40 years of age. Salon suppresses malolactic fermentation for maximum freshness and longevity an iconoclastic move for a Cote de Blanc producer.
This is the quintissential blanc de blancs champagne and the 1999 will cellar for twenty to thirty years.. Described by the winemaker as a ‘mature, rich and abundant’ year Blanc de blancs champagnes particularly Salon with no malo benefit from age. Extraordinary lemon curd, laser like persistence, deeply layered with extraordinary complexity but this wine is a baby and needs time!
96 points Wine & Spirits “As it turns 15, this wine still has youthful notes of chamomile and meadow flowers. Its flavor intensity, a force of nature pitting those vibrant, sunny floral notes against a resonant limestone earth tone, is something that could only have been achieved through all those years in bottle. While the mousse is persistent and as fine as a mist, the flavors are vinous, suggesting you serve this wine as you would a Corton-Charlemagne: with something equally luscious and rich, like seared sea scallops over truffled mashed potatoes.” Dec 2013
95 points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate “The Salon 1999 Brut Le Mesnil – disgorged already in 2011 and dosed with a pretty typical six grams of residual sugar – displays faintly fusil and quarry dust notes as well as hickory nut, almond, walnut and toasted wheat piquancy on the nose. Polished and subtly creamy in texture yet brightly juicy with apple and lemon, this displays an uncanny sense of lift and refinement, perfectly complementing the honeysuckle and heliotrope perfume that waft inner-mouth. You could lose yourself in the ineffability of this wine’s floral diversity and in its resonantly nut and grain low tones. Hints of apple pip lend subtle additional piquancy on a long and at once soothing as well as stimulating finish, with suggestions of oyster liquor becoming prominent as the bottle stands open for a few minutes, and serving to milk the salivary glands for all that they are worth.” Nov 2013
95 points Antonio Galloni, Vinous‘… is the first wine in which fresh, primary fruit flavors are replaced by more mature notes. Lemon oil, light honey and chamomile flesh out in a radiant, expressive Champagne loaded with class. Here it is the wine’s texture and breadth that impress above all else. The 1999 is a fabulous transition to the older wines in this tasting, as it is both youthful and complex.” May 2014
Limited stock.
