97pts Jeb Dunnuck

Pouring a bright silver/yellow color, the 2015 Champagne Salon Brut is a bit shy on the nose at first but offers richness on the palate, with peppery spice and crystalline, satiny earth, white peach, quince, and a stone-fruit fleshiness to the texture, characteristic of a sunny vintage. Harvested in the first days of September, it’s medium-bodied and has a broader texture throughout the palate, maintaining the delicacy and finesse of the house. It has a muscular profile but remains tailored, with some phenolic touches and a fresh richness in texture and structure. It has a pinpoint mousse and a touch of frothiness on the finish, ending with a structured and dry finish. When revisited in the glass, it becomes more smoky, and it gains in intensity as it opens. While it currently shows restraint, it should only improve with several years in the bottle. Drink 2027-2060.

97pts Vinous

The 2015 Salon is exquisite. Bright and focused, the 2015 captures a gorgeous stylsitic middle ground between the riper and cooler years. The flavor profile leans towards the more citrus, floral and mineral-driven end of the spectrum typical of cooler years, and yet the wine is also wonderfully open-knit and accessible, with no hard edges and the textural balance that is more common in warmer years. It's a duality that works extremely well. There is a savory undertone typical of the year, but it is a strand in the fabric rather than a dominant characteristic. I left a bottle open for more than a week, during which I observed virtually no oxidation. The 2015 might not be as overtly impressive as some recent years, rather it is a Champagne of cool sophistication and total polish. Unusually, the 2015 is being released ahead of the 2014.

96pts James Suckling

Fragrant aromas of chamomile, pineapple, beeswax, pie crust and some salted toffee from this generous vintage. Tasty sesame seed flavors on the palate, accompanied by a chalky, saline character. It's creamy and concentrated with very soft bubbles. Engaging and open already, yet with good acidic structure. 100% chardonnay from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. 6 g/L dosage. Disgorged end of 2024. Delicious already, but can hold.

95pts Wine Spectator

Initially reduced on the nose, this opens with air to reveal rich notes of toasted brioche and smoked hazelnut layered with white peach, baked pineapple and tangerine sorbet flavors, plus a minerally underpinning of oyster shell and chalk. The plush mousse offers a luxe, cashmerelike feel while carrying the rich range of flavors, trimmed nicely by chiseled, lemony acidity. Drink now through 2040.

95pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Released ahead of the 2014 rendition and originating from a dry, sunny growing season, Salon’s 2015 Brut Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil, disgorged in spring 2025 with a dosage of six grams per liter, follows in the footsteps of 2013, continuing a run of releases that are friendly from the start, without the austere edge that has often characterized this cuvée in the past. It expresses itself from the glass with a deep bouquet of orange peel, linden and freshly baked bread mingled with notes of lemon confit and subtle hints of lychee and mango. Full-bodied, concentrated and broad, it is fleshy and charming, with a generous core of fruit underpinned by ripe yet racy acidity and enlivened by a pillowy mousse, before concluding with a long, saline finish. This is a structured, open-knit Salon that carries a similar substance to its two immediate predecessors and will not disappoint those who choose to open it in its youth, despite my strong recommendation to cellar it for at least a decade—if not longer—as I anticipate it will follow a comparable evolutionary trajectory to the 1990 rendition.

Tasting Notes

From the first moment, Salon 2015 captivates the senses. Its shimmering golden hue glints with green and silver. A graceful stream of fine bubbles releases precise, delicate bouquet: white flowers, hints of linden and honeysuckle, all underpinned by a persistent chalky quality that threads through every aroma. The palate is generous and vibrant, balancing saline freshness with brilliance, a pure expression of its terroir. Intense and finely structured, it delivers a tasting experience where depth and refinement meet, each sip telling a story of place and time.

Profoundly complex, Salon 2015 is a wine for the table. To whet the appetite, begin with the exquisite blanc de blancs from sister house Delamotte, then savour Salon 2015 at table, as you would a fine wine. The wine is in its element with foods that share its nobility, such as a succulent Kintoa ham from Basque country pigs, aged mountain parmesan, or No. 1 oysters flashed over binchotan charcoal, all revealing the subtle saline power and smoky iodine of Salon. Going further still, the chalk-driven character of Salon 2015 will magically lift umami-rich dishes. Among the many masterpieces of French gastronomy, we must mention Sébastien Bras’ grilled line-caught sea bass with a hazelnut crust - a standout pairing that shows the remarkable gastronomic potential of Salon 2015.

About the Bubbles

A legendary wine – one that sparkles.

Salon is a unique champagne. Defined by its singularity since the very beginning, this exceptional wine is the champagne of a single terroir: the Côte des Blancs; a single cru: Le Mesnil-sur-Oger; a single grape variety: Chardonnay; a single year: that of a great vintage; and of one man: Eugène-Aimé Salon.

Champagne Salon comes from a single hectare plot called « the Salon garden » and nineteen other small plots in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger selected by Eugène-Aimé Salon at the beginning of the 20th century. The wines are aged in our cellars for an average of ten years, after which they finally start to reveal their complexity and finesse.

The fact that Salon still conserves bottles in its cellars from nearly every vintage is testament to its legacy and honours it. Just 37 vintages were produced in the 20th century, a unique phenomenon in the world of wine.

This forty-fifth vintage marks a kind of rebirth, a reminder of first principles. 2015 transports us back to 1905, when the visionary Aimé Salon created his first masterpiece – one that nobody had dared imagine: a Champagne from a single cru, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger; a single grape, Chardonnay; and a single vintage, made only in the most exceptional years. Crafted initially for the pleasure of its brilliant inventor and his close friends, Salon’s singular creation quickly captured the attention of the most discerning connoisseurs of the Roaring Twenties.

Winery Notes

The first vintage of Champagne Salon was 1905. It was the creation of Eugène-Aimé Salon, a unique character with unwavering ambition. In love with champagne and captivated by the terroir of Le Mesnil, Eugène-Aimé Salon created a champagne after his own heart: an unparalleled Blanc de Blancs. Initially he created this for his personal pleasure only – it was not until the 1920s that he was to share his creation with the rest of the world.

In 1905, he created the Blanc de Blancs, as he called it, quite simply. His many friends were delighted with it and, once some years had passed since the tragic events of World War I, encouraged him to make more of it for their own enjoyment. Thus, the house of Champagne Salon was founded in 1920 for this enthusiastic clientele.

From then on, Champagne Salon was a feature in all the most popular places. Maxim’s made it the house champagne in the Roaring Twenties. Eugène-Aimé Salon was always welcome there, mingling in diverse political circles, defending his convictions about Europe and was a member of the well-known ‘Club des Cents’ (an exclusive gourmet society). Everybody wanted to drink his champagne. Salon was ground-breaking for the time, given it was a wine produced from the Chardonnay grape variety alone. No Champagne brand had marketed a single-variety wine before World War I. In this way, Eugène-Aimé Salon was the pioneer of the Blanc de Blancs style.

Today, Champagne Salon is run alongside Champagne Delamotte by Didier Depond, President, and Michel Fauconnet, Cellar Master and Production Manager of the Laurent-Perrier group.