A Brief History of Dom Perignon
Monday, May 11th, 2009Dom Perignon is a champagne at the top end of its field produced by Moet Chandon. It is the luxury model of the range, so to speak. It is, quite frankly, one of the best wines available to the consumer and has a price tag that reflects this.
It is named after a Benedictine monk who was an key pioneer for quality for the champagne industry but contrary to popular belief did not discover the actual champagne production method.
The first vintage of Dom Perignon was 1921 and was only released for sale in 1936. Dom Perignon is a vintage champagne, meaning that it is only made in the best growing years. There is no guarantee that will be produced every year and quite often there will be a number of years that pass before the grapes are of good enough quality to use for a production run. To add to this all grapes used to make the wine must have been harvested in the same year.
Many champagnes, by contrast, are non-vintage, which means that the champagne is made from grapes harvested in various years and as such mixes grapes from good and not so good years. This is one of the main reasons why Dom Perignon is such a highly regarded champagne.
Around 5 million bottles of Dom Perignon are produced in each vintage. The champagne usually consists of 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir. As of 2009, the current release of Dom Perignon is from the 2000 vintage and the current release of Dom Perignon Rose is from the 1998 vintage.
All vintages need around 12 months of aging before they reach that trademark silky feel and only continue to improve with age.
The current (2009) winemaker is Richard Geoffroy and has held that position since being appointed in 1998.
Being a world famous Champagne, Dom Perignon is distributed worldwide through Moet Chandon , from the local regions of France all the way down to Australia.
