Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
2004 Salon weaves together immense complexity with stunning purity and makes instant impact on the nose with fresh-baked pastry and brioche, chalky minerals, fresh white mushrooms, cucumber, lemon curd and striking lemon and lime fruits. The palate has an almost smoky mineral thread while toasty autolytic flavours build and expand through the mid-palate, opening to grapefruit and ripe white-peach flavors, lemon sorbet and very lightly grilled hazelnuts to close. This is an impressively layered Blanc de Blancs in which bright acidity supports the flavorsome, concentrated and fleshy texture in seamless balance. A great Salon that’s very composed and complex in every respect; it’s a classically styled vintage in which this legendary Champagne has excelled. It will be a fascinatingly complex Champagne with further age. Drink now and for 10+ years.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Salon's releases are rare and signify a great vintage—the last release was the 2002. Coming from grand cru vineyards in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, this 2004 is complex and concentrated, capturing the essence of Chardonnay in Champagne. Intense minerality and ripe apple and citrus fruits accompany the purity and crisp texture that are part of its ability to age. The wine can continue for many years, certainly to 2025 and beyond.
-
Wine & Spirits
Salon is chardonnay from 20 parcels in Le Mesnil, all the original blocks chosen by Aime Salon with his first vintage in 1905. This latest vintage is quiet at first, its sophisticated layering of flavors opening over the course of several days. With air, this tastes like a Puligny with bubbles, its vinous character portrayed in scents of white flowers, chamomile, peaches, kimquates and lemongrass, all of that intensity of flavor shepherded by the chalky direction of limestone acidity. Decant it if you open the wine now; this is structured to age for decades.
-
Wine Spectator
This elegant Champagne features ripe, up-front aromas and flavors of dried apricot, crystallized honey and candied kumquat, giving way on the creamy palate to more subtle notes of raw almond, fleur de sel and star anise. Mouthwatering, with a chalky underpinning and a lovely, satiny finish. Drink now through 2026.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Associated with luxury, celebration, and romance, the region, Champagne, is home to the world’s most prized sparkling wine. In order to bear the label, ‘Champagne’, a sparkling wine must originate from this northeastern region of France—called Champagne—and adhere to strict quality standards. Made up of the three towns Reims, Épernay, and Aÿ, it was here that the traditional method of sparkling wine production was both invented and perfected, birthing a winemaking technique as well as a flavor profile that is now emulated worldwide.
Well-drained, limestone and chalky soil defines much of the region, which lend a mineral component to its wines. Champagne’s cold, continental climate promotes ample acidity in its grapes but weather differences from year to year can create significant variation between vintages. While vintage Champagnes are produced in exceptional years, non-vintage cuvées are produced annually from a blend of several years in order to produce Champagnes that maintain a consistent house style.
With nearly negligible exceptions, . These can be blended together or bottled as individual varietal Champagnes, depending on the final style of wine desired. Chardonnay, the only white variety, contributes freshness, elegance, lively acidity and notes of citrus, orchard fruit and white flowers. Pinot Noir and its relative Pinot Meunier, provide the backbone to many blends, adding structure, body and supple red fruit flavors. Wines with a large proportion of Pinot Meunier will be ready to drink earlier, while Pinot Noir contributes to longevity. Whether it is white or rosé, most Champagne is made from a blend of red and white grapes—and uniquely, rosé is often produce by blending together red and white wine. A Champagne made exclusively from Chardonnay will be labeled as ‘blanc de blancs,’ while ones comprised of only red grapes are called ‘blanc de noirs.’