Salon 97 magnum v.s. bottle                                      Photo by Johnny

Salon Blanc de Blancs Le Mesnil 1997 Brut Champagne in magnum (1.5l)

Tasted on Sept. 19, 2011 @ "Salon de Salon" Champagne Lounge Launch Dinner, 

Le Sun Chine, Shanghai   www.lesunchine.com

For the launch of "Salon de Salon" Champagne Lounge @ Le Sun Chine, Shanghai, Didier Depond, President of Champagne Salon Delamotte, specially brought a magnum of Salon 97 (Didier's first vintage @ Salon) to the dinner, in addition to Salon 99 and a range of Delamotte current releases in bottles.

It's the first time for me to taste a young Salon from a magnum. An exciting and rare opportunity -- as per Didier, there are only around 2,000 magnums for each vintage of Salon.

Having tasted the graceful, velvety Salon 97 (in 750ml bottles) three times, I naturally expect the magnum to be much more youthful (less evolved) in flavor profile, but would the magnum be a touch too explosive and austere at this stage?

It turns out that I'm partially right, and happily wrong:

Incisive minerality on the nose, with hints of green apple and white flowers.

But the palate is not explosive at all, as the mousse is silky smooth. It's adolescent indeed, yet high-toned, filigreed, seamless and poised. Racy green apple and stony minerality are beautifully enveloped in silky texture, with admirable mid palate seductively filled with rich extracts now only subtly hinting at mandarine, cream, yeast and chalk. With more time in the glass, the mineral salinity becomes more tangible.

Surely, there are many more years ahead for such magnum of Salon to gracefully evolve and unfold. But today's subtlety and poise are impeccable already.

A side note: after the dinner, we checked the magnum and found the disgorgement code there: "L9730010", meaning this magnum of Salon 97 was disgorged on the 300th day of 2010.