2006 Champagne Salon, Le Mesnil, Blanc de Blancs, Brut
Critics reviews
Stephan Reinhardt - 30/11/2017
About this WINE
Salon
Salon, a tiny house on the Côte de Blancs, produces what connoisseurs consider to be the quintessential Blanc de Blancs. Salon produces Champagnes in minuscule amounts (50,000 bottles a year, if at all) from over 40-year-old vines in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger (one of the greatest crus of the Côte de Blancs).
Salon produces the only wine in the world not to be made every year and is on average only declared about 3 times a decade. Salon is extremely delicate, subtly rich and with age (20-30 years or more) develops notable aromas and flavours of coconut, walnut, coffee and vanilla. All champagne lovers should experience Salon at some stage. Exquisite.
Brut Champagne
Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé.
Non-vintage Champagnes can improve with short-term ageing (typically two to three years), while vintages can develop over much longer periods (five to 30 years). The most exquisite and often top-priced expression of a house’s style is referred to as Prestige Cuvée. Famous examples include Louis Roederer's Cristal, Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, and Pol Roger's Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill.
Recommended Producers : Krug, Billecart Salmon, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Salon, Gosset, Pierre Péters, Ruinart
Champagne blend
Which grapes are included in the blend, and their proportion, is one of the key factors determining the style of most Champagnes. Three grapes are used - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.
26% of vineyards in Champagne are planted with Chardonnay and it performs best on the Côtes des Blancs and on the chalk slopes south of Epernay. It is relatively simple to grow, although it buds early and thus is susceptible to spring frosts. It produces lighter, fresher wines than those from Burgundy and gives finesse, fruit and elegance to the final blend. It is the sole grape in Blancs de Blancs, which are some of the richest long-lived Champagnes produced.
Pinot Noir accounts for nearly 40% of the plantings in Champagne and lies at the heart of most blends - it gives Champagne its body, structure, strength and grip. It is planted across Champagne and particularly so in the southern Aube district.
The final component is Pinot Meunier and this constitutes nearly 35% of the plantings. Its durability and resistance to spring frosts make the Marne Valley, a notorious frost pocket, its natural home. It ripens well in poor years and produces a soft, fruity style of wine that is ideal for blending with the more assertive flavours of Pinot Noir. Producers allege that Pinot Meunier lacks ageing potential, but this does not deter Krug from including around 15% of it in their final blends.
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Description
The 2006 Salon Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil Brut has a shining silver-golden color, the bubbles are tiny and enormously finethey probably wouldn't stop rising from the bottom of the glass if you left the wine in it instead of drinking it. On the nose, there is a fascinating, pure and fresh bouquet with acacia, chalk, incense and concentrated lemon flavors. The 2006 is mouthfilling, round and elegant on the palate; it is dense and tight but also fresh and cleansing, provided with great finesse, mineral complexity, length and structure. The finish is clear and aromatic, round and well balanced, slightly creamy, very intense, greatly finessed and truly elegant, with stimulating salinity in the aftertaste.
Stephan Reinhardt - 30/11/2017
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