Salon’s Cristian Rimoldi: ‘Champagne is one of the easiest wines to pair with food’

I was born and grew up in Argentina, close to the city of Rosario, and I’m from an Italian family, so food and wine are part of my first memories. I remember a lot of the ceremony around cooking, making pasta and opening a bottle of wine. Of course, I was not allowed to drink but I remember the smell of wine, especially red wine, and the colour.

I was always passionate about wine but after university I worked in marketing and exports in different areas, [such as] perfume and cars. Then I decided to go back to school and do training in food and wine. [including an MBA in luxury brand management for food and wine in France].

What makes Champagne so special is that with the same grapes and terroir you can make different styles of wine. I think the blending in Champagne is interesting; over the years, you have to keep the continuity and consistency, but also blend different plots, villages [or] sometimes vintages. And then with vintage Champagne, it's another experience. You sometimes have more complexity, ageing potential and different cycles in the wine’s evolution.

[Our New York Fine Wine Encounter Masterclass] will focus on blanc de blancs. We always use the same six grand cru villages for Delamotte and only Le Mesnil for Salon, and so with the same base we come up with different expressions of these grapes and that’s always fascinating.

Sometimes people always buy the Champagne their father or mother, or grandmother, used to buy. Now, people are more open to taste other houses, small producers and other regions in Champagne. That’s good for the entire appellation.

People are also drinking higher quality wines – more vintage, more special cuvées, going deeper into the experience.

I think food pairing was underrated but maybe that’s changing. More people are thinking about the full experience, not just drinking the wine.

Another thing is that I think more people are discovering older Champagne and how evolution gives a different experience. [Also] People don’t imagine you can keep a wine [in the winery] for 10 years and at the end it’s still so fresh. That’s always amazing to share with people.

I think Champagne is one of the easiest wines to pair with food. I always think about simple pairings; roasted poultry, fresh fish, or oysters. Blanc de blancs is very easy to pair with all of those. And with rosé you can go from red meat to seafood, depending on the wine.

Think about what you like to eat and then try things, not only about convention. People sometimes think about cheese with red wine but white wines and Champagne are great with cheese.

During Covid, when restaurants were closed and access to markets was limited, we found one perfect, very simple pairing for blanc de blancs non-vintage was pink radishes that you can find almost everywhere. With a bit of butter and salt, you can have the perfect aperitif.

I love to cook for friends. The problem is time! It depends on the season. I love lamb, and right now in France we can find white asparagus that is perfect at this time of year, just roasted, very simple and tasty, and I think it goes very well with blanc de blancs.

I love New York and go two or three times-a-year for work. It’s an incredible city for wine and dining. It’s a never-ending experience getting to know the food scene. You also have a lot of knowledgeable chefs and sommeliers from all over the world.

Chambers is one of the places I always go, because I like to experience the wines with [sommelier] Pascaline Lepeltier and I love the food.

When people visit Champagne for the first time, I always say go to one or two of the big houses to see the history and the cellars, but I always recommend contacting small growers and visiting the villages. You can understand the label better if you know how the vineyards are positioned in all of these villages and how many producers there are.

In every village you’ll have one or two good local restaurants, and you can sometimes taste Champagne that you don’t find outside France.

The wine never tastes the same when you take it out of the place. In the cellar at Salon we opened a bottle of 1943 [vintage]. That is the oldest Salon I’ve had. It’s like a piece of history. The wine was so fresh. It was old, of course, so you had the evolution, but it had a backbone of acidity that comes from Le Mesnil.

I think sometimes people drink Champagne too cold. I prefer not to decant but, for a vintage [cuvée], I open the bottle 30 to 45 minutes before pouring to help the wine open up in a very natural way.

Pick the right glassware, because the nose is very important for the experience. I prefer a bigger, wider glass [normally used] for red or white wine, even a Burgundy glass for vintage, more complex Champagne.

And don’t drink too quickly. Champagne takes time, and every sip will be a different experience.

I travel a lot [for work] and I try to discover new things. I love to walk and when you walk for one, two or three hours you’re discovering things. That’s one of my favourite sports in a city like New York. I love art and music in general. Food markets are the first thing I try to find when I go to a city for the first time. It’s always a good place to understand the essence of a city.