Like most people, your intrepid liquor reporter generally only breaks the Champagne out of the cellar for special occasions.
A milestone birthday recently passed me by, so I decided to finally crack open that bottle of Dom Pérignon that had been aging in the cellar for the last 10 years.
James Bond fans will recall that 007’s favourite tipple is the 1955 vintage of Dom Pérignon, served at 38°F, preferably with a beautiful and dangerous blonde with a double entendre in her name.
For those not intimately familiar with this king of Champagnes, the story begins with a Benedictine monk named Dom Pérignon, the cellar master in the Abbey of Saint Peter in northeast France way back in the 1650’s.
Dom Pérignon was trying to perfect the art of winemaking in the monastery, and one of the challenges of the day was preventing the bottles in the cellar from exploding due to pressure build up from secondary fermentation in the bottle.
In those pre-refrigeration days, spring was a treacherous time in the wine cellars of monasteries across Europe, as the warmer weather would rouse the dormant yeast still in bottles, causing a secondary fermentation in the sealed bottle, which produced enough carbon dioxide to push the corks out of the bottles, or in extreme cases, even cause the bottles to explode.
It was Dom Pérignon who struck upon the idea of thicker glass bottles, as well as the now-common Champagne cork held in place with a wire cage. His long years of experience gave him an intuitive feel of exactly when to bottle each wine to minimize the risks of explosion, which caused his reputation to grow far and wine as a true master of wine.
Like all Champagnes, Dom Pérignon is a sparkling white wine, even though it is made with a blend of red and white grapes. While the particular ratio I the blend varies from year to year, it is always a combination of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
It was Dom Pérignon who struck upon the idea of gently pressing the Pinot Noir grapes and immediately removing the skins to prevent the white juice from being colored by the red skins. Since the red grape varietals were much less likely to undergo secondary fermentation in the bottle, the risk of explosions in the cellar were greatly reduced.
Unfortunately, Dom Pérignon died in 1715, while the vast majority of wines in the Champagne region of France were still wines instead of sparkling. It was not until the 19th century that the Champagne region of France began to produce predominantly sparkling wines.
The monastery where Dom Pérignon lived and died fell into disrepair during the French Revolution, and is now owned by the Moët & Chandon Champagne House, who named their premier Champagne in honor of Dom Pérignon’s contribution to the science of winemaking during his life at the abbey.
The first vintage of champagne deemed worthy of the Dom Pérignon name was in 1921, although it was not released for sale until 1936.
Unlike most wines, Dom Pérignon is not produced every year. Lesser wines will be produced from the same vines every year, but only declare a vintage year during exceptional harvests. Since 1921, there have only been 40 releases of Dom Pérignon, generally around 3 releases per decade.
That makes every release of Dom Pérignon a vintage year, in keeping with its reputation as the king of the Champagne world. The last release of Dom Pérignon was in 2003, as that was the most recent harvest judged to be exceptional enough to be used for Dom Pérignon. The same vines are still harvested every year, but the non-vi ntage years are used to produce lesser wines, so as not to diminish the prestige of the Dom Pérignon brand.
The taste of Dom Pérignon is nuttier and more earthy than most Champagnes, likely owing to the longer time spent aging before release. The most distinctive flavours are of vanilla, sandalwood, and praline.
If you look around, you will find bottles of the Dom Pérignon 2003 vintage at well-stocked wine stores in Calgary, generally priced around $250. So, it might not be an everyday table wine, but is a special treat for a momentous occasion.
