Dom Pérignon is only available as a vintage champagne and is only produced in exceptional years. Each vintage is a creation, singular and unique, that expresses both the character of the year, and the character of Dom Pérignon. After at least eight years of lees ageing in the cellars, the wine enters its first phase of interest, Plenitude 1, showing quite youthful fruit and broad texture from the lees contact. The signature Dom Pérignon aromatic is that "hint smoky" character a result of the reductive winemaking where they go to extreme lengths to keep each step of the winemaking process free of oxygen. With every sip of Dom Perignon you always have that purity of fruit character, depending on the vintage you normally see the Pinot Noir fruit dominate, which are those red fruits like raspberry, peach and dark cherry. The Chardonnay adds a supporting layer of chalky texture and delicious fruit in the yellow spectrum like plum, apple and tropical notes of pineapple.

Dom Pérignon 2002 expresses all the power of grapes picked at the peak of their maturity, while going far beyond the character of the year, enhancing its natural richness and lending it extra precision and depth.

Weather: The 2002 vintage shaped up ideally over the spring, with no significant frost and near-perfect flowering. Then followed a summer marked by long, sunny periods interspersed with regular cloudy and rainy spells. The vines were in good health and the dehydration of the grape berries helped them reach new heights of ripeness.

News Article: Dom Pérignon 2002 performed well in our comprehensive Prestige Cuvées from 2002 blind tasting in October 2016 with Jancis Robinson MW. Read the full write-up here.

Technical Information:
Vineyards: 100% Grand & Premier Cru
Grape Varieties: 51% Chardonnay, 49% Pinot Noir
Ageing: 7 years on the lees
Disgorged: 2014
Dosage: 6 g/l
Drink: Now to 2035+

Tasting Note: On the nose, the first hints of fresh almond immediately open up into preserved lemon and dried fruits, rounded off by darker smokey and toasted qualities. On the palate, it is creamy, energetic and warm, focusing on the fruit, then gradually taking on more profound bass notes. Dom Pérignon 2002 is a magnetic, still-elusive wine that fully reveals the nature of this legendary House.

This is the best Dom Pérignon vintage still available on the market today. In August 2016, the House released some extremely rare 6L methuselahs of Dom Pérignon 2002. This champagne tastes exquisite from bottle and based on all the extra lees ageing the eight-bottle format has received, it should taste even more stunning from methuselah! Although be prepared to wait many years for this size bottle to reach its optimum maturity: even at over fifteen years old, it will currently be a very youthful champagne.

The 6L methuselah comes in a beautifully presented and Dom Pérignon branded gift box (as shown in the picture on the left).