Champagne Salon: Gran Vin With Bubbles
This year's importer's meeting for Champagne Salon & Champagne Delamotte was held in Kyoto, Japan. Our President and CEO, Greg Doody, had the honor of attending the event along with Salon's importers from 19 other countries.
The three day meeting consisted of delicious wine, gorgeous views and a lot of anticipation for the 2004 vintage release.
Ever since its founding, Salon has been served in the world’s most renowned establishments, including the legendary Maxim’s, which made Salon its house Champagne in the 1920’s.
To this day, Salon only produces one wine, a Blanc de Blancs, from a one-hectare parcel owned by Salon, “Salon’s garden,” and from 19 other smaller parcels in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger chosen by Aimé Salon at the beginning of the 20th century.
Salon is rare on all counts:
- Always a single harvest
- Single cru
- Single grape variety
- & only produced in exceptional years when the grapes contain the ideal combination of richness of fruit, sugar and acidity.
In the 20th century, only 37 vintages were declared at Salon.
The wines are cellared in the bottle for an average of 10 years, gaining in complexity and finesse. There is, therefore, just over 12 years stock in the chalk cellars at Salon.
At each step of production of Salon, it is a conscious decision to be the best, the most beautiful and the rarest, that allows fervent admirers of Salon to taste a perfectly balanced Champagne, with rich and complex aromas.
One can always find nuts, citrus, floral tones, minerals, sometimes smoky, sometimes doughy, according to its age, time, length on the palate and fine, persistent mousse. It is easily compared in its fullness and richness to the great wines of Burgundy.
This is what makes Salon unique: simply put, it is a grand vin...with bubbles.
2004 Vintage: The Serenity Vintage
The 2004 vintage is only the 39th vintage released by Champagne Salon. The 2004 vintage displays all of the qualities expected of Salon: complexity, purity and freshness.
But beyond this, there is a sense of serenity, promising many years of anticipation before the wine reaches its ineffable peak.
The intense freshness and minerality do not belie the wine's aromatic promise. Taut and edgy in the mouth, the wine is all purity and fine acidity. This great white wine, even now in its youth, gives a glimpse of Chardonnay's rich potential with its brioche, warm bread and fresh yeast character.
Salon 2004 is an exquisite testament to a stunning vintage and one that will stay with us long into the future.
