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.

The Plénitude (originally Oenothèque) concept has been years in development at Dom Pérignon. After studying the natural course of ageing that vintage champagne seems to undertake, the winemaking team found that, rather than improving steadily and linearly (as is the case with many wines), it develops and matures through three defined stages in its life.

The first release (P1) comes approximately 8 years after the harvest and is the style that most consumers are familiar with. The second stage (P2) takes roughly 15 years, during which time the cuvée takes a profound leap to a new quality level where it will plateau for many years in terms of improvement. Finally, the third Plénitude (P3) will see the champagne ageing another 20-30 years until it reaches its ultimate peak. Initially these mature vintages were made available under limited release called “Oenothèque” but were re-branded in 2014 as “Plénitude”. Read more about the Plénitude concept here.

Weather: The 2003 vintage was one of pre-eminence: a year like no other, defined by extremes. The vineyard was first touched by severe spring frosts that left a lasting mark on the Champagne region before being struck with an unparalleled heatwave. As a result, the crop was perfectly ripe and healthy but left a particularly small harvest: this was the hottest year since 1822.

At the time the P2 2003 was made Richard Geoffroy was the chef de cave and he always hailed 2003 as his "favourite" vintage, more because of the challenge of being able to make a great champagne in a year where the weather was trying hard to make it impossible. In the end I think it is fair to say Richard triumphed over the hot weather and managed to make a champagne that is looking much better in its second release P2 form that it did on its first release. There is no doubt it has a "big character" you can see lots of full flavour, but there is an underlying freshness and beauty of the texture from long lees aging that I didn't see in the P1. This has been aged on cork since bottling in 2004 and I wasn't expecting to see so much freshness and elegance. This is by far the standout champagne from 2003.

Technical Information:
Vineyards: 100% Grand & Premier Cru
Grape Varieties: 62% Pinot Noir, 38% Chardonnay
Ageing: 15 years on the lees
Disgorged: September 2019
Dosage: 5 g/l
Alcohol: 12.5%
Drink: Now to 2030

Tasting Note: The nose is stunningly toasty with sweet, vanilla laden fruit, hay, juniper, cookie dough and cream. On the palate it is exuberant, round and textured with a notion of firming phenolics of a hot year on the back palate. The time on lees seems to have created some extra roundness and delicious sweetness to the fruit. Finely bubbling energetic palate finishing on a pure mineral freshness. Tasted by Essi Avellan

Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2 - P2 2003 is available with or without a high-quality metalled Dom Pérignon gift box (as shown in the second picture).