Salon 2006, the 40th legendary vintage Champagne

Salon is a legend for Champagne lovers the world over with only 40 vintage cuvées produced since 1911 and only after the best harvests.

The legend of the Champagne born from the extraordinary vision of Eugène-Aimé Salon, who was born in 1867 in the village of Pocancy, just east of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, began in 1905 and it is a very Champenois story, indeed. He was a fur merchant but his brother-in-law Marcel Guillaume was the chef de cave for a small champagne producer called Clos Tarin, as well as the future founder of Côte des Blancs producers’ cooperative. Being both a passionate and curious man, as well as well off from his business dealings, Eugène-Aimé Salon decided to buy a vineyard of just over a hectare in size and planted with Chardonnay in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. At first he produced a Champagne for his friends and clients and it turned out to be the first vintage Blanc de Blancs. Just one wine, from just one varietal from just one Grand Cru vineyard and from one harvest. This choice was totally in contrast to the basic concept of Champagne at the time, a blend of grapes and areas using vins de reserve to perpetuate a style year after year.

Even if Eugène-Aimé Salon initially did not have commercial ambitions, he quickly realized how successful his Champagne was and in 1911 decided to found his own Maison and his Champagne was soon being served at Maixim’s Club de Cents in Paris. In order to expand production, Eugène-Aimé Salon struck agreements with other winegrowers in Le Mesnil and still today the majority of the grapes used come from the 19 parcels of old vines that were originally selected by Monsieur Salon, including “Le Jardin Salon” that can be seen from the windows of Maison Salon-Delamotte.

The double-barrel name came about in 1988, a good 45 years after the death of the founder, when Salon was acquired by the Laurent Perrier group and this had to do with the recent history of France itself. When he was in his early 20s, Bernard de Nonancourt, the future Laurent Perrier chairman, was a member of the French Resistance and was called on to examine the spoils Hitler had hoarded at his Eagle’s Nest retreat and was surprised to find so many wooden cases of Champagne Salon. It was then Bernard de Nonancourt who, in 1997, decided to put the talented Didier Depond in charge of both the Salon and Delamotte Maisons, with Alain Terrier serving first as chef de cave to be followed by Michel Fauconnet.

Salon today continues to have a small production of just over 60,000 bottles, made with grapes from some 12 hectares of old vineyards, and remains a legendary and much sought after Champagne due it being so rare, considering that since 1911 only 40 cuvée vintages from the best harvests have reached the market.

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