19 Ninety-Nine Cuvée ´´S´´ - World Wine Consultants SA

November is the month of both ´giving´ and ´thanks´, and I had the good fortune to share & enjoy a bottle, with huge thanks, of the 1999 vintage Champagne Brut Blanc de Blancs “Cuvée S Le Mesnil”.

We also happen to have two bottles of this vintage in stock today at LCB VT and up for grabs should you have interest @ GB£1.080bt/ib ex tax/shipping.

1999 Salon Cuvée S tasted like this:

Bright yellow-gold. Lemon oil, light honey pear skin and ginger along with chamomile that fleshes out in a radiance of expressive Chardonnay and loaded with class. A slow ager and getting there. 96/100pts

As you may already know Champagne Salon is, by design, never less than the most extraordinary wine. Always 100% Chardonnay, it only comes from the grand cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Since the house was founded, pre WW1 in 1905, the backbone of Salon has been a small, one-hectare, estate-owned parcel in Le Mesnil, known as Le Jardin de Salon. The land here is near enough pure chalk. The wine is made entirely in steel, with no malolactic fermentation, one of the reasons it needs extended time in the bottle prior to it´s release.

Salon makes only one cuvée and is, of course, exclusively a vintage Champagne made only in the best vintages, and for your information only 37 vintages have been bottled since the first vintage back in 1905. This has been possible because of it’s sibling house, Delamotte, which receives the declassified fruit. For many years, Delamotte was the best-kept Champagne secret out there, but those in the know now know all about it, and the price has been creeping up in recent years. In 1988, the house of Salon was purchased by Laurent-Perrier and has since been run as a separate entity. Today, Didier Depond is the president of both Salon and Delamotte.

If any of this story tickles your Le Sabre and Sabrage skills, or even just for your tittilation, there are two other vintages in stock lying ex LCB VT, but I am sorry that we cannot offer you any more Carlingford Oysters that we enjoyed with the bottle of 1999 last week, as we ate the lot, sin Tabasco!

6 bottles 2013 Salon Cuvée S @ GBP1.025bt/ib

A graceful Champagne, with pleasing plushness to the finely detailed mousse, revealing a delicate honeyed overtone to the notes of apricot tart, lemon curd, white blossoms and smoked almond. Shows a rich, underlying streak of chalky minerality that emerges to drive the lacy finish. 96/100pts

6 bottles 2002 Salon Cuvée S @ GBP1.250bt/ib

The 35th vintage of Salon since the house was founded in 1905 and is memorable and magnificent. Made only from Chardonnay grown in the Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, it combines intense minerality, a crisp textured core and the beginnings of maturity. The depths of this wine, with its layers of fruit and steeliness, are superb. 100/100pts

Le grand combattant au sabre, sur le point d´effecteur Le Sabrage!

‘I only drink Champagne on two occasions, when I am in love and when I am not.’ .. Coco Chanel