Moët & Chandon - Dom Pérignon Brut Cuvée 2012

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Dom Pérignon is produced exclusively as a Vintage Champagne. If the vintage is not exceptional, and up to the standards of the Dom Pérignon legacy, then the wine will not be produced. 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 elaboration in the cellars, the wine embodies the perfect balance of richness and harmony. For Dom Pérignon, assemblage is paramount in the champagne elaboration process. Starting with the vine itself, this is the creative gesture that draws on contrasts and paradoxes, contradictions and synergies through intuitive and inventive research to reveal the true nature of each vintage. A year full of paradoxes for winemaking, 2012 ultimately gave birth to a great vintage.

A View from the Cellar: 98 Points

The 2012 Dom Pérignon is a brilliant wine in the making and seems likely to ultimately be judged one of the greatest vintages here in the last quarter century. According to Chef de Cave Vincent Chaperon, the wine is close to its ideal cépages of fifty percent each of chardonnay and pinot noir in 2012. The wine is quite a powerful vintage of Dom Pérignon, but with all of the customary elegance and structural chassis of the greatest vintages here and it remains a young wine, brimming with energy and superb depth. The bouquet wafts from the glass in a classic blend of lime, green apple, menthol, stony minerality, discreet botanical tones, gentle smokiness and a topnote of citrus peel. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a great core, superb mineral drive and grip, utterly refined mousse and a long, zesty and beautifully balanced finish. I love how the perfect ripeness of the 2012 vintage is seamlessly interwoven here with a superb girdle of acidity, great minerality and excellent purity, which will end up producing a legendary vintage of this wine. It is certainly approachable out of the blocks, but I would opt to tuck bottles away for at least eight to ten more years before starting to drink the 2012, as there is so much left here to still unfold.