Hi there, and welcome to Wine Searcher. Today, I thought I'd look at an utter classic – this is Dom Perignon, a leading name in Champagne. This is the 2010 vintage. Dom Perignon is the luxury brand for Moët & Chandon and been produced since – the first vintage was 1921, released in the States, it was a brand primarily produced for the United States, released in the US in the mid-30s.
Originally, it was simply a rebottled version of Moët's vintage Champagne. Named after Dom Perignon, the monk. The Benedictine monk - who was the cellarmaster at Hautvillers. He is famed with having invented Champagne, but actually it was the blending process that he was mostly involved with. For a lot of his time Dom Perignon struggled to stop the wine re-fermenting in bottles because the quality of the glass in those days was such, that it was actually really dangerous for the poor guys working in the cellar if it was fizzy.
The wine - I don't have an exact blend on it, but is normally not more than about 60% Chardonnay with the balance being Pinot Noir, so probably about 60/40. It gives it a sort of an elegance and a freshness from that Chardonnay component with an underlying weight and richness coming from the Pinot Noir.
So why is Dom Perignon today (because it's no longer simply the equivalent of Moët & Chandon), why is it better than any other vintage Champagne? Well, the one thing that they will do, is that they age this wine for about eight years - in the cellars - so that the wine does its second fermentation. It has the yeast in the bottle during that period, once that's died, the wine ages in the cellars in its bottle for eight years before degorgement. So, during that time, the yeasts in the bottle break-down and they release sugars, and they release flavors, obviously, and proteins into the wine. But the sugars and the proteins affect the surface tension and enable a smaller bubble to be produced, and you'll see, hopefully - if you look closely at the glass, this has been open for a couple of minutes and the bubbles are still rising - a tiny bead rising slowly. So, that gives a very fine bead in the mouth.
I've heard people suggest that actually the size of a bubble isn't a sign of quality in a Champagne. Well, I think they're wrong because it is the sign of that long yeast aging and that sort of capture of a smaller bubble.
If you smell the wine, you've instantly got that sort of a greenness coming from the fruit, a sort of green apple notes there, and a slight leafiness, but you're getting that yeastiness coming at you. Sort-of, to an extent there is a breadiness, to an extent. There's almost a… almost heading to a sort of vegemite / yeast extract note. It's complex, there's toastiness coming out of there as the wine has developed. And these are wines that will age in bottle for 10 to 15 years after you've bought them. You know - the finesse, the good acidity, and the body last very well.
So let's taste it. Looking at it, it's got a very pale-yellow color. Smelling it, as I say, that green note, the yeasty breadiness, and tasting it; not surprisingly, really lovely acidity and great freshness. The wine has a lovely length of minerally fruit running through it and a lemoniness, but then at the end there's a body around this almost as a slight creamy texture coming from those yeast lees. Again, the breadiness, the toastiness, the yeastiness - not so much of that sort of vegemite flavor, which is great - and it's just starting to develop a little bit of a honeyed note that will probably continue to develop as the wine ages in bottle.
The flavors are very, very long, they're not overpowering, it’s not a huge wine but it's crisp and quite sort of precise, really sort of enlivening my mouth with its acidity and yet there's enough richness in the fruit that it doesn't seem harsh or sharp. So, yes, Dom Perignon, not the greatest of vintages, 2010, actually, a vintage almost ruined by rain. Dom Perignon had to work very hard to select out the best fruit to make wines, and they made a good wine that I think will last beautifully.
So, yes, if you feel like treating yourself, its a great idea for a treat. Cheers everybody!
