CHAMPAGNE SALON 2013

THE STORY OF SALON

The story of Salon’s creator, Eugène-Aimé Salon, reads like a picaresque novel, a tale of rags-to-riches – or in this case: furs.

The child of a cart-maker from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, the young Aimé Salon left for Paris, finding work for a fur merchant, where he rose from messenger boy to managing director, making the company and himself a sizeable fortune in the process. Work hard, play hard? Aimé Salon mixed the two assiduously. Very much the bon vivant as well as shrewd businessman, enthralled by Paris and its glittering social circuit, he even had his own table at Maxim’s, the hottest address of the time, where he would meet clients and lovers alike. He was also passionate about champagne and apparently consumed a great deal of it in the company of his glamorous friends. And this is where the improbable story of Cuvée ‘S’ began.

Some say that Aimé Salon decided to create this champagne for his own amusement, or for a bet, or to impress his contemporaries - who could possibly have the cash, the connections or the insider’s skill to produce a champagne with their name on it? Others believe the story of the eccentric and aesthete, determined to create the perfect champagne; either way, it is clear that this became something of an obsessive project. Aimé Salon returned home to Le Mesnil-sur-Oger to consult with his brother-in-law Marcel Guillaume, a cellar master. It was he who explained to Aimé Salon the special nature of Le Mesnil’s soils, the exceptional acid profile of its grapes, and their potential to yield wines of great power, purity, and longevity. At this point perhaps, had anyone other than Aimé been driving the project, Cuvée ‘S’ might never have happened. For this was the land of the chardonnay grape, very much second fiddle to pinot noir back then; nobody had ever made a champagne exclusively from chardonnay, any more than they would consider making a wine from a single vintage or vineyard! Fortunately, for us, Aimé Salon lived by his own rules.

And so the quest began, with chardonnay the new muse. Marcel’s little black book of vineyards and vignerons was plundered and Aimé Salon set to work on an exacting plan. Just imagine the incongruity of it: the Parisian entrepreneur down from town, gliding past horse and cart in his gleaming Hispano Suiza J12, treading the vineyards in his shiny city shoes, in pursuit of the finest plots, the

most favourable gradient, the purest chalk. He developed an exacting google-worthy algorithm to rate each harvest, based essentially on fruit ripeness, character, acid profile and balance. Had the grapes attained the Salon standard? One year in three, more or less; Salon was unflinching in rejecting a harvest he judged to be less than perfect.

In the cellar, yet more criteria: only the purest juice would be used from the first pressings, the rest cast aside. Next: the lengthy prise de mousse and maturation - which can surely only have been trial and error at the beginning: try a bottle, wait a bit, try again, wait a bit longer, eventually reach conclusion that said wine requires a minimum of ten years horizontal in a dark room in the intimate company of its spent yeast lees. This was one of Aimé’s great achievements: he understood that chardonnay’s firm, taut structure could indeed attain greatness and finesse, but that only time would confer charm, curve and allure. In creating Salon, he was to transform the perception of chardonnay itself in the world of champagne.

1905 marked Aimé Salon’s first vintage, produced in tiny quantities to share with friends and family, who eventually persuaded him to expand it into a commercial venture. So in 1911, Aimé Salon bought his first vineyard – the single hectare plot now known as le jardin de Salon – from which Salon is still made, along with some 20 other exceptional vineyard parcels dotted across Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The 1911 vintage was launched in 1921, at Maxim’s of course, where it was poured as the House champagne. It was here, in the heady atmosphere of 1920s and 30s Paris, that the wine’s reputation was made, and it continued to be sold here exclusively until the 1950s.

A single terroir, a single vintage, a single grape, and time – Salon is the legacy of a very singular man indeed. Thanks in no small part to Didier Depond, the similarly dynamic and charismatic Président of Champagne Salon and its sister house Champagne Delamotte since 1997, the exacting methods developed by Aimé Salon continue to be upheld to this day. Salon Cuvée ‘S’ is made from only the most exceptional vintages, in small quantities, and released after an average of a decade’s ageing.

2013 VINTAGE NOTES

Salon: the original blanc de blancs: captivating, uncompromising, refined; a champagne as distinctive as its creator Aimé Salon, the pioneer of a style for all time. Salon: defined by its singularity — a single grape variety, Chardonnay; a single cru, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger; a single vintage, when exacting criteria can be met. This is also why Salon’s legacy is as rare as it is legendary. Today, some 120 years after Aimé’s idea took form, we release Salon 2013, still only the 44th vintage to be made.

In fact, it was unclear, for some time, whether we should expect a Salon 2013 at all. Was this vintage the ‘washout’ that some column-hungry pundits were swift to damn? Or might there just be an all-time great in the wings, an elite athlete in covert training in the chai of Le Mesnil? For some years, Didier Depond was gloriously inscrutable on the topic, assuming a sphinxlike mien when questioned, occasionally seeming to teeter tantalisingly on the brink of a confession, only to shrug and change the subject. ‘On verra’.

The 2013 growing season in Champagne, as in vast swathes of France, was certainly far from a ‘textbook classic’, at least not in the positive sense, memorable for reasons so many vignerons would prefer to forget. While Champagne is no stranger to climatic curveballs, the particular configuration of conditions unleashed during those crucial months of 2013 threatened to derail the entire vintage, and for many, did just that. Certainly, the weather varied wildly from sub-region to sub-region, parcel to parcel; no grower’s experience was the same.

Perhaps this is also why opinion on the 2013 Champagne vintage, in general, was down-played for so long, quality assessments a little opaque, pronouncements noncommittal. Certainly, the show-stopping surround sound of recent brilliant vintages was notably quiet until quite recently, as if the ‘fanfare’ button were on pause, pending supreme approval. So, 2013 has remained something of an enigma, manoeuvring into the wings as if by stealth, gliding patiently in the slipstream of its stellar predecessors, 2012 and 2008.

Tasting Guide

Our tasting notes provide full details but, at your request, we have also introduced a clear and simple marking system. We hope these guidelines assist you in your selection. For the benefit of simplicity, wines are scored out of 20. We will often use a range of scores (e.g. 16.5 to 17) to indicate the potential to achieve a higher mark. When a ‘+’ is shown it adds further to that potential. Wines from lesser vintages will, inevitably, show a lower overall score.

Wines are judged, in a very broad sense, against their peers. Why? Well, you cannot easily compare a Ford with an Aston Martin, other than they are both cars and have wheels. It is not that different with wine. A score is a summary only. The devil is in the detail, so please focus on the tasting notes and, as always, speak to our sales team.

DRINKING DATES

We are often asked our opinion on specific drinking dates for Salon and pleased to provide recommendations as follows:

Vintage Drink date

1982 Drinking now to 2030

1983 Drinking now to 2020 At absolute peak now (magnums will drink to 2030+)

1985 Drinking now to 2030 (magnum to 2040)

1988 Drinking now to 2030 (magnum to 2040)

1990 Drinking now to 2040 (magnum to 2040)

1995 Drinking now to 2050 (magnum to 2060)

1996 Drinking now to 2050+ (magnum to 2060+)

1997 Drinking now to 2040 (magnum to 2050)

1999 Drinking now to 2050+ (magnum to 2060+)

2002 Drinking now to 2060+ (magnum to 2070+)

2004 Drinking now to 2050+ (magnum to 2060+)

2006 Drinking now to 2050+ (magnum to 2060+)

2007 Drinking now to 2050+ (magnum to 2060+)

2008 Drinking now to 2080+ (in magnum only)

2012 Drinking now to 2070+ (magnum to 2080+)

2013 Drinking now to 2075+ (magnum to 2085+)

So, how did the season unfurl? As always, the foundations of all wines are in place long before the grapes are harvested. The exhausting epic of the 2012 season at a close, a harsh winter took hold, seemingly without end. Spring was similarly grim, with heavy rains and stubborn cold, the average temperature a chilly 7.6°C, two degrees below the norm. Even if frost slipped off the events calendar for once, the vines were understandably reluctant to return to action after their winter break. In this drawn-out cool and wet, the growing season shunted back and back again. Budburst took place at the end of April – astonishingly late! - delaying flowering, in some places by several weeks.

Thus, the course was set for all. Harvest would push to the last days of September at best, even early October. In this very delay lies the genesis of the 2013 vintage style and quality, one that would require a long, slow and courageous tightrope walk to the far side of the season.

At Salon, as for many producers in the Côte des Blancs, flowering took place at the very end of June, completing on 1st July, two to three weeks later than usual, the process further complicated by heavy squalls. The result, for many, was coulure and millerandage (poor and uneven fruit set), which would subsequently require meticulous attention in the vineyards.

In July and August, Le Mesnil saw record-breaking temperatures and luminous sunshine, a godsend. But would these conditions prevail, and would they be enough? The vines were working hard, playing catch-up, but it was still way, way too early to feel ‘safe’. And the vines were getting a little too hot under the collar. Inevitably, the scorching heat led to storms. Heavy rains and hail in some places

wreaked havoc, leading to significant crop losses in parts of Champagne (particularly the Aube and the Marne, and up to 30% in some areas of the Côte des Blancs). While a few fortuitous showers can provide welcome refreshment, the relative warmth and humidity provided pictureperfect conditions for those twin annihilators: mildew and oidium, which threatened to derail the entire process. The champenois fought back hard. Even though chardonnay is less susceptible than the pinots to the mildews, the Salon team sprang into action, working tirelessly, parcel by parcel, vine by vine, a relentless rhythm that barely saw them leave the vineyards at one point.

With the arrival of September, the weather changed dramatically across the region, much to the consternation of the growers. With the fruit still far from fully ripe, conditions were now decidedly autumnal, further cooled by rains. As the shadows lengthened and the days ticked by, growers scurried around the vines, desperately willing the fruit to ripen. Somehow, in those last pale days of late September, the grapes came slowly, softly, to full maturity.

Harvest began officially in Champagne on 24th September. Finally, on 1st October, the Salon team started to pick. This would be one of the latest vintages in decades at Salon, with a notable influence on style. Wrought over time, picked in the cool, Salon is in rarefied company alongside those other, great October-born vintages: 1983, 1988, 1998.

So, all’s well that ends well. Despite an abysmal start to the year, and the much-delayed, difficult flowering, the lateseason ripening period and the dedication of the Salon team were to prove the saving graces. The grapes that made it through the strict selection process showed tremendous concentration of fruit, and tense, racy acidities.

September 2023

REBECCA PALMER

TASTING NOTE

« 2013 se distingue aujourd’hui

“2013’s extraordinary stature will forever set it apart, with its impressive physique and insolent beauty”

DIDIER DEPOND, PRÉSIDENT, CHAMPAGNE SALON

This iteration of Salon is beautifully drawn, with the exquisite form and physique of an athlete, fine curves precisely toned. Surprisingly accessible for a Salon at this stage (at recent tastings in August and September 2023) it is an extraordinary wine and unmistakably Salon. First, that compelling combination of scents, in specific order: the sensuous white flowers – jasmine, acacia – then, the crushed shells and iodine of Le Mesnil; then a waft of fresh ginger. The palate seduces with generous baked pear fruit, then autolytic notes of warm brioche, biscuit, the merest touch of almond. The creamy mousse scintillates with tiny, fine bubbles, only for a laser beam of incisive steely acids to cut through all that light silk. It leaves a chalky freshness in its wake, and Salon’s hallmark hit of salt and sea.

In this outlier year, that defied all odds, Salon 2013 stands alone, subtle and profound, its distinctive lines emerging from the canvas of the vintage with grace and flair.

Dosage: 6.5g/l

Corney & Barrow score 19+ £2,745/case of 3 bottles, in bond UK Available for delivery from Spring 2024

A small number of magnums will be released in 2024. Please register your interest as soon as possible.

et toujours par sa stature hors norme, impressionnant par son physique et son insolente beauté »

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