1997 is certainly a more forward vintage of Salon, and consequently, it is drinking very well at age thirteen and is uncharacteristically wide open and ready for business at such a young age (for Salon). The bouquet is...
1997 is certainly a more forward vintage of Salon, and consequently, it is drinking very well at age thirteen and is uncharacteristically wide open and ready for business at such a young age (for Salon). The bouquet is deep, pure and lovely, as it offers up scents of apple, lemon, warm bread, hard limestone minerality a touch of almond skin and incipient notes of the white chocolate to come with a bit more bottle age. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and blossoming in terms of structure, with a fine core of fruit, lovely, refined mousse and very good length and grip on the deep and powerful finish. This will never be the most complex vintage of Salon, nor the longest-lived, but for drinking over the next twenty or so years, it will provide a lot of pleasure. The wine will probably continue to gain in complexity as it continues to mature, and three or four years of cellaring would only allow it to open up even more. A very tasty vintage of Salon.