Arriving at Maison Salon for a visit & tasting. I am so excited, prior to this visit I had never even tasted Salon.
Me and Elizabeth outside of the beautiful Salon Winery
Salon was founded in 1921. Originally, the current winery was the country house of Mr. Salon. The focus of Salon is Chardonnay, Blanc de Blanc and the goal of the winery was to make the freshest possible wine that could age 30 years. Mr. Salon’s main profession was as a farrier, and the Winery was just a hobby for him.
The house style is all about One Grape Variety, Chardonnay and one Terroir.
The 1979 Salon Blanc de Blancs, what a fabulous year!
This beautiful room shares the entire collection of Salon vintages that are made. On average they make a vintage every 3 or 4 years, over the past 100 years they’ve made 37 vintages. And each year they decide to make a vintage they only produce one Cuvee a year!
This set included vintages from 2004, 2006, 2007 & 2008 and only 8,000 sets were made.
This is the tasting room at Salon. It’s very elegant and modern which is surprising since the Maison has such an older more historic feel.
Part of our tour at Salon included walking their vineyards which are located at the back of the Maison. This view was in early November and the yellow leaves are beyond stunning. My first trip to Champagne was in October of 2018 and I have to say a few weeks later for this year’s trip made such a difference in the bright vivid leaf colors we saw.
Stepping into the Salon Cellar. This was as old and magical as this picture illustrates. Follow along to see more….
The grapes come from Le Mesnil region in La Cote de Blancs. Le Mesnil is the most expensive region to source grapes in Champagne and France.
After the Maison, Vineyard & cellar tour the wine tasting began! We started with the Champagne Delamotte Brut. This is the sister brand to Salon and was delicious. The grapes that aren’t used in Salon are used for Delamotte Champagne so you can imagine these wines are almost as impressive as Salon Champagne.
The Delamotte Brut is made in the Classical style a blend of Chardonnay (55%), Pinot Noir (35%), and Pinot Meunier (10%). This had a beautiful peach aromatic to the noise and also the lovely yeasty, creamy rich smell. The non-vintage is aged 3 years and has 8 grams of sugar.
We tasted through all four Delamotte Wines. The two non-vintages and two vintages.
The Delamotte Blanc de Blanc was one of my favorite’s of the Delamotte Wines. It had a bit more focus and longer flavors on the mouth. I could also taste the chalky flavors of the terroir and was a bit richer and creamier than the brut. This has 7 grams of sugar.
The 2012 Delamotte Blanc de Blancs is made from 6 different origins of grapes from Mesnils, 6 Grand Cru’s of the Cote de Blanc (it doesn’t get much better than that in terms of grape origins in Champagne). I loved this even more than the non-vintage Blanc de Blanc (not surprising as the Blanc de Blanc seems to be my favorite of the Delamotte Champagnes).
The grand finale was, of course, tasting the 2007 Salon Champagne. It’s hard to describe how wonderful this was after I’d heard so much about it and never had the change to try Salon before…
The noise of the 2007 Salon was surprisingly not as rich as the full-body rich flavors on the taste. It had subtle bright fruits such as lemon, grapefruit with stony minerality (reflective of Le Mesnil’s terroir). On the palate, the wine was super fine, creamy, rich, and elegant. It had a very long yet fine finish.
The line up of beautiful Delamotte & Salon Champagne we tasted.
All smiles enjoying this beautiful 2007 Salon Champagne.
Cheers to a magical trip to Champagne and the opportunity to visit this beyond spectacular Maison. Thanks to the Salon and Delamotte for hosting me and opening up your cellar (for both touring and tasting). I am such a lucky lady!
What do you think?