Salon 2002

A wine that already has legendary status; in time, the debate between this,
2008, and 1996 will be fun. It offers a slight baked lemon cheesecake note
but is tight, fresh, and with piercing length. Seamless and perfectly
balanced. Peaches, ginger, and lemon. Building in richness and will continue
to do so. That glorious creamy texture is already in evidence. 

Expect honeyed notes in the not-too-distant future. Even a hint of sea
breeze and oyster shell. This has decades ahead and a perfect score will
surely be achieved in time. A wine of utter precision. For now, it was so,
so young that I could only give it a miserly 98. 

Keep your hands off this wine for as long as you possibly can (unless it is
someone else’s bottle, then it is open slather). Depond has described this
as his Audrey Hepburn wine. This is not just one of the finest champagnes
from the great 2002 vintage, it is one of the best wines of this century to
date. 

Bottle. Disgorged 2014. Dosage 5.5 g/l. Original release was in 2012. Still commercially available in small quantities.
Intense and decongestant effect. Then so rich and nuanced on the palate. There’s a delicacy here too! Starting tertiary notes underneath, with some hay and then real grip on the end. Very long with a fascinating narrative. So many layers of delicacy!

Disgorged spring 2015 with 5-6 g/l dosage.
A touch smoky at first, almost white peppery. Creamy brioche on the palate, superb balance between depth, complexity and vitality. Tense and incredibly persistent. This really is delicious now but Didier Depond, president of Champagne Salon, suggests Salon just starts to get into its stride after 20 years and Corney & Barrow suggest now to 2060+

At first tasting in January 2014, and only recently disgorged after years on the lees, Salon 2002 seemed the very essence of Salon, displaying the wine’s familiar contrasts of tone, temperature and tension. Its aromas span the spectrum from delicate white spring flowers to sensual jasmine and exotic hot ginger.

These evocative flavours seem to warm and brighten on the palate: saturated with creamy orange flowers, candied citrus, fresh brioche, and laced with a tonic saline minerality, the mouth is a sensational riot. But it is perhaps in texture and weight, that this Salon proves most captivating and enigmatic: gossamer-fine, the wine’s tiny bubbles seem to skim weightlessly across the palate, that has no apparent edge or end. Simultaneously deep, rich and ethereal, Salon 2002 walks the high wire of power with customary poise.

Salon is an exceptional Champagne, arguably the rarest of all. Located in the celebrated grand cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger in the Côte des Blancs, Salon is made in tiny quantities (5,000 cases per vintage) and only when conditions are absolutely right, a rare occurrence given Champagne’s marginal climate.

2002 is the thirty-eighth and first vintage of the 21st century. 38 vintages, all different, all sublime, all unique, like this exceptional Salon Champagne, for which the word "one” is of prime importance: originally the Champagne of one man, Aimé Salon, cultivated on one stretch of land, the Côte des Blancs, from one vineyard, Mesnilsur-Oger, from one type of grape, Chardonnay and one year.