WTN: 1988 Champagne Salon

[David M. Bueker]

Happy New Year! Crab Imperial and Champagne - what could be better? The 1988 Salon was beautiful, though it needed an hour+ of air to show its best. With air there was all sorts of stuff going on - flowers, citrus, apples, stone, cinnamon, what toast, etc. Just an amazing level of complexity, and then there was the length. Get the sun dial if you want to know how long this wine was. Amazing stuff.

We had the 1999 on New Year's Eve, and it took at least 2 hours to open up. Alongside the 1999 Taittinger CdC, which was just beautiful, and the 2002 Guy Charlamagne, the Salon was everyone's 3d favorite. But I'm convinced that it will improve with age (which I certainly hope, as I have 2 more bottles and a mag!!).