Dom Pérignon Vintage 2012 Champagne, 75cl

Product Information

Which grapes are included in the blend, and their proportion, is one of the key factors determining the style of most Champagnes. Three grapes are used - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. The French region of Champagne (comprised of the towns of Rheims, Epernay, and Ay) was the first region in the world to make sparkling wine in any quantity. Today, the name of the region is synonymous with the finest of all sparkling wines, and winemaking traditions of Champagne have become role models for sparkling wine producers, worldwide. Surprisingly, the region of Champagne is now responsible for only one bottle in 12 of all sparkling wine produced. Styles of champagne range from the basic brut (often blends of several vintages), single vintage champagnes, and rose. The Plénitudes: evolution by successive windows of expression on the way of the long maturation on lees; When tasting the 2012 Chaperon says “my first impression was 2012 was a year when Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were offering a lot of maturity as well as a lot of concentration – this combination of maturity and concentration and balanced and harmonious, also rich, dense.”

Dom Pierre Pérignon, a French Benedictine monk, set out his vision to "create the best wine in the world" when he became Cellar Master at the sacred Abbey of Hautvillers in 1668. Dom Pérignon dedicated over 40 years to this mission, employing a visionary spirit and daring approach to the wine making process. Over that time, he became known as the "father of champagne" for laying down the fundamental rules for the traditional Champagne production method (La Methode Champenoise or Traditionelle). A favored wine of the Sun King Louis XIV, Dom Pérignon himself compared his wine to "drinking stars". A rigorous selection process in both the vineyard and winery ensures that only the best grapes go into Dom Pérignon champagne. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are used in roughly equal proportions without one variety dominating the other. The wine is pale to medium gold, an abundant mousse leads into a fine steady bead; the nose is unmistakeably Dom Perignon with the dial turned towards the riper end of the scale, a complex and varied set of aromas whose immediate impression is one of homogeneity and harmony and then with time and thought breaks down into its constituent parts – a mix of fruit, toasty and vegetal – there’s a flowery autolytic character, peony, Mirabelle plum, apricot, lemon-infused rye crumb, there’s a vegetal character and a minty lift.This year, Dom Pérignon has also released an older vintage, the 2003, under itsPlénitude 2 (P2), based on the belief that in the arc of a wine’s life, there is more than one moment when it expresses peak character. In Chaperone’s view, “maturation on the lees is a time of constriction, for the wine to develop complexity.” At the same time, in his words, “the yeast transfers energy in mysterious ways.” Only when that complexity and energy come into balance (as it has for the 2012) will the house release a vintage. But there’s a moment years later when the wine canenter a second life (not all vintages do), when it speaks more loudly and expressively—when it’s longer, deeper, more intense, and has even more vitality and energy—this is “Plénitude 2” in the life of a Dom Pérignon vintage. Riedel designed the “Dom Pérignon” glass to be in symbiosis with every Vintages of the House, shedding a light on the singularity of Dom Pérignon. Unfailingly true to Dom Pérignon’s vision, the new glass sets the stage for harmony by enhancing: Classic lemon-zest and tension nose that I associate with Dom Pérignon, but with extra weight and depth. And quite marked phenolics on the end which suggest this will have a remarkably long life. And, as Vincent Chaperon readily admitted, will definitely show up as a P2 star. Clean and neat and with light smokiness on the finish. Dom P always plays the reduction card. Hugely impressive persistence. Still a baby. 18.5/20 points+ (JR) Flow: a tension, a “yin & yang” that enables the wine to express itself without exaggerating any dimension of its complexity Pinot Noir accounts for nearly 40% of the plantings in Champagne and lies at the heart of most blends - it gives Champagne its body, structure, strength and grip. It is planted across Champagne and particularly so in the southern Aube district.

A year full of paradoxes for winemaking, 2012 gave birth to a great vintage, surmounting multiple challenges. Nature proved unpredictable and implacable as a series of climate events descended upon the vineyards: frost in the winter and spring, torrential rains, hailstorms, and cold spells while the vines were flowering, plus intense heat waves over the summer. A warm and dry climate alleviated any concerns as to the health of grapes, favoring the maturation of the fruit. The beginning of the harvest stretched from September 10 to 26, depending on the parcels. Tasting the grapes revealed tremendous promise, with a balance between freshness and generosity. Under the creative leadership of cellar master Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon is reinvented with every vintage. The miraculous concept of assemblage – the delicate balance between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – and the commitment to Vintage are instrumental in the act of creation, revealing the wine's extra soul.Precise and tactile to the point of seamlessness, tense through rhythm and vibrancy, vigorous and fresh yet mature, intense and complex – such is the sensual style of Dom Pérignon: so inviting, yet so mysterious...The nose is full and varied, mingling flowers with fruit, then vegetal with mineral. The bouquet is tactile, subtly enticing us along a trail of powdery white flowers and nectarous apricot, followed by the freshness of rhubarb and mint, and the minerality of ash. White pepper. Weather: The 2012 weather has been hallmarked by many as very challenging but has created some stunning Champagne. Relatively low yields due to various weather conditions throughout the year. The winter months brought some frosts and hail which damaged the early stages of bud burst. August and September were very warm and this helped rescue and give the grapes a stunning maturity. Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé. is one of those years full of contrasts and paradoxes – contrasts were there from the beginning of the climatic trajectory because we had a winter and spring that were quite aggressive with a lot of climatic events like hail, frost, disease as well, but in the scond part of the year the sun was there and the condition was perfect – this contrast of the climate was there the first time I tasted the Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay, there was this balance between precise acidity on the one hand and on the other very generous, with a textured maturity in the grapes.” The 2012 Dom Pérignon has turned out very well indeed, unwinding in the glass with notes of Anjou pear, smoke, toasted nuts, freshly baked bread and crisp stone fruit. Medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's still tightly wound, its incipiently fleshy core of fruit framed by racy acids and chalky grip, complemented by a classy pinpoint mousse. A touch drier and a touch less reductive than the 2008 out of the gates, these two vintages are clearly destined to be compared for some time to come; but at this early stage, my instinct is that the 2012 will have the edge in the long term. (WK) 96+

Dom Pierre Pérignon was appointed "cellarer", or administrator, of the Abbaye d’Hautvillers in 1668. For the next 47 years he dedicated himself to creating "the best wine in the world. " Dom Pérignon’s creative ambition is a constant quest for harmony as a source of emotion. All creative processes have their constraints. Dom Pérignon's constraint is the vintage. Dom Pérignon can only be produced from the harvest of a single year. Dom Pérignon is one and indivisible.

In its youth, Dom Pérignon shows incredibly smooth, creamy fruit with perfect balance and weight. As it ages, it takes on wonderfully toasty aromas and a finesse equalled by very few of the other Grandes Marques.