Champagne holds its breath until the Saints de Glace (Ice Saints) are safely past (11, 12, 13 May), dreading a spring freeze that might destroy the future harvest’s fruitful buds.
Desuckering removes the non-fruitful buds (suckers or gourmands). Any unwanted growth is removed to optimise sugar concentration and encourage good sap flow.
The Champagne month by monthAll Champagne wines must spend at least 15 months aging in the bottle before release, rising to three years for vintage wines. In practice, the Champagne Houses cellar their wines for much longer: 2-3 years for non-vintage Champagne, and at least 4-10 years, if not more, for vintage Champagne.
Champagne Salon was willed into being by Aimé Salon, who crafted his first vintage in 1905. The wines are exclusively single vineyard, single varietal and single vintage, sourced entirely from the 100% Chardonnay Mesnil-sur-Oger Grand Cru on the Côte des Blancs.
The Champagne Houses