Future Salon….

WINE TALK
1

According to Didier Depond of Salon….there will be Salon in 2004,06,07,08,13……with 2008 in mag only because of the exceptional quality.

Does anyone offer “futures” for Salon? Wonder what those 08 mags will go for? [shock.gif]

champagne.gif

2

So no 2012? surprising…

3

I hope they reconsider this. If the quality is so exceptional they should want more people to have the opportunity to try it.

4

Mike,

2012 was really great pretty much everywhere outside of the Cote des Blancs and was on the smaller side yieldwise. I still think the Cote des Blancs made decent and vintage worthy wine in a lot of places in 2012, but many producers compared it to the quality elsewhere and decided it wasn’t up to snuff. Relative to the vintage elsewhere in Champagne, I understand the disappointment, but in the bigger picture, I think 2012 Cote des Blancs Chardonnay is vintage worthy and above average. I tasted a lot of very, very good Cote des Blancs and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Chardonnay, but many found the quality of the wines ranging from really, really good to average and the quantity fairly evenly spread across all the qualities. When mixed with the lower end yields, this made it hard to make a blend of the top quality in the quantity many wanted.

5

I wonder why they are offering 08 in mag only; I’ll purchase because I like Salon, but I’d rather pick up several 750s and 2-3 mags. However, depending on price, this could be ugly. I purchased 02s recently and wasn’t very happy with the price; does anyone think the price will drop later this year. The best prices I’ve seen so far have ranged from $330ish to $350.

6

Too expensive these days anyway.

7

2008 is my kid’s birth year, and I was planning on buying some champagne. I guess Salon won’t be on the list unless I draw from her college fund…

8

I think I read somewhere that 2008 Salon will only come to market in 2024 or so…

And in addition the volume of the 2008 vintage appears to be substantially below average…

So speculating what the price will be is very very premature, but it doesn’t bode well…

9

From our tour of the Salon cellars in March they had quantity of the following vintages: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012. If they don’t produce a '12 it would be fun to know where that juice is going. Hmmm…

There was a LOT of unreleased 2004 - I got the sense that that they won’t wait overly long to release it after the '02. Time will tell.

FWIW for the curious the 2002 is very, very good but seemed a touch riper than the 1996 at the same point post-release. The '96 was painful to taste at the recently bottled stage.

10

What do you mean by, “painful to taste”?

11

It had very high acidity at the time. Otherwise it was and is a great wine.

12

Thanks Shannon

13

You’re welcome. I’m a Salon fangirl - all photos of me at Salon show grinning like crazy. champagne.gif

14

Post some pix, I’ve never seen any of Salon. Did you visit any grower champagne houses?

15

Rick - there are some photos of Salon in the album at the following link. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully trying to do notes etc. since March but did throw some photos up. No grower Champagne houses this trip. Next time! :slight_smile: Champagne Trip 3.14 | Flickr

16

Great pictures Shannon. I noticed many places serving Champagne in flutes still. You’d think that was over by reading certain blogs.

17

Great pictures Shannon; thanks for posting. Was this trip through an agency or are you ITB? I’m planning a trip to Burg but will spend a few days in Champagne. How hard is it to get into Salon, Krug, DP, etc?

18

Thanks Nick. I asked the flutes vs. glasses question with winemakers etc. and they said no skinny flutes but other than that said it was a preference. The flutes were large, wide and deep at most places and for the most part more like white wine glasses. Most were embossed with the House names. Classy tastings! :slight_smile:

Rick - I’ll PM you with the information. The answer is that it is difficult to get into Salon, Krug, DP unless you are ITB. But there are ways…appointments are necessary with most places except for some in Reims. You can walk into Taittinger but I’m not sure how much you would see.

19

Thanks for the response. I was feeling guilty because to be honest I still like a good flute. I do like the more open style for sure but they are just more festive and sometimes the wine gets lost in larger glasses. IMO of course.

20

I use zalto universal for champagne; on occasion I’ll break out flutes but I prefer a larger stem.