History
The Salon Champagne is produced only in the most favourable vintages and is arguably the finest, and certainly the rarest and most coveted, of all Champagnes.
The House of Salon was created at the turn of the century by oenophile Eugène-Aimé Salon, a man so singular in his pursuit of the quintessential champagne that he devoted much of his life to realizing the exceptional conditions necessary to create just one wine.
Eugène-Aimé meticulously scoured the entire Champagne region for the parcels of terrain he believed capable of exception; he sought a chalk-rich vineyard capable of yielding the very finest Chardonnay grapes. The man was fascinated by the Chardonnay grape, and believed wholly in the transformative potential of a lengthy lees ageing on Chardonnay wines.
He simply refused to entertain the idea of planting other grape varieties like his neighbours did. He found his vineyard location, situated on a deep chalk seam in the heart of the Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, and planted it with Chardonnay. Grapes from this tiny vineyard - called Le Jardin de Salon – still form the basis of all Salon vintages.
Initially Eugène-Aimé produced Salon in minuscule quantities for himself and his friends, however the champagne was so greatly appreciated that in 1921 he applied for a commercial licence to produce the wine in greater volume. Even so, a Salon vintage equates to on average 4,000 cases, tiny by Champagne standards.
In 1988, the House of Salon was bought by Champagne Laurent-Perrier and is run by Didier Depond under the aegis of President Bernard de Nonancourt, one of the most highly respected figures in Champagne.
The Vineyards
Salon remains a unique concept: a single wine, a single cru, a single grape – the apparent simplicity of this formula belies the challenges inherent in creating a wine like Salon. Complexity, focus and elegance are the watchwords common to all vintages of Salon. They are the Champagne’s true identity and, like all great wines, Salon expresses this inherent identity irrespective of the vagaries of specific vintage conditions.
It is testament to one man’s extreme perfectionist vision, that the traditions he prescribed continue to be upheld in the production of Salon.