Dom Pérignon Vintage 2012 Champagne, 75cl

Product Information

The 2012 Champagne is 51% Chardonnay and the rest Pinot Noir and has 4 grams per liter dosage. Its style is finessed and elegant, revealing a soft, smoky perfume of fresh white flowers, pear, and fresh bread dough. The palate is focused and long, with a polished mousse, and offers notes of lime blossom, white peach, and chalky minerality as well as long perfume resonating on the finish. (AF) Dom Pierre Pérignon, a French Benedictine monk, set out his vision to "create the best wine in the world" when he became Cellar Master at the sacred Abbey of Hautvillers in 1668. Dom Pérignon dedicated over 40 years to this mission, employing a visionary spirit and daring approach to the wine making process. Over that time, he became known as the "father of champagne" for laying down the fundamental rules for the traditional Champagne production method (La Methode Champenoise or Traditionelle). A favored wine of the Sun King Louis XIV, Dom Pérignon himself compared his wine to "drinking stars". was a solar year, as we heard, and Champagnes from 2012 generally are open, generous and accessible and this classic Dom Perignon is no exception, a vintage that welcomes you with open arms. The core of the blend are the eight historical Grands Crus, Aÿ, Bouzy, Verzenay, Mailly, Chouilly, Cramant, Avize and Le Mesnil, plus the legendary Hautvillers Premier Cru. Dom Perignon also has the unique privilege of being able to select grapes from all 17 Grands Crus in Champagne. giving birth to Dom Perignon's highly intriguing contrast".

All creative processes have their constraints. Dom Pérignon's constraint is the vintage. Dom Pérignon can only be produced from the harvest of a single year. Dom Pérignon is one and indivisible. The wine is pale to medium gold, an abundant mousse leads into a fine steady bead; the nose is unmistakeably Dom Perignon with the dial turned towards the riper end of the scale, a complex and varied set of aromas whose immediate impression is one of homogeneity and harmony and then with time and thought breaks down into its constituent parts – a mix of fruit, toasty and vegetal – there’s a flowery autolytic character, peony, Mirabelle plum, apricot, lemon-infused rye crumb, there’s a vegetal character and a minty lift.The 2012 Dom Pérignon has turned out very well indeed, unwinding in the glass with notes of Anjou pear, smoke, toasted nuts, freshly baked bread and crisp stone fruit. Medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, it's still tightly wound, its incipiently fleshy core of fruit framed by racy acids and chalky grip, complemented by a classy pinpoint mousse. A touch drier and a touch less reductive than the 2008 out of the gates, these two vintages are clearly destined to be compared for some time to come; but at this early stage, my instinct is that the 2012 will have the edge in the long term. (WK) 96+ Brut denotes a dry style of Champagne (less than 15 grams per litre). Most Champagne is non-vintage, produced from a blend from different years. The non-vintage blend is always based predominately on wines made from the current harvest, enriched with aged wines (their proportion and age varies by brand) from earlier harvests, which impart an additional level of complexity to the end wine. Champagnes from a single vintage are labelled with the year reference and with the description Millésimé. Chaperon has said that 2012 was a year of “explosive harmony” so what exactly does he mean by the ‘harmony’ he is seeking in the wine?

There are three plenitudes in the life of a given vintage: the first plenitude spans between seven to eight years after the vintage, which is when Dom Pérignon Vintage is released, while the second one arrives between 12 and 15 years – which was previously the first oenothèque release, but from now will be branded as P2.Thethird windowcomesafter around 30 years, when the Champagne has spent more than 20 years on its lees, which will now be termed as P3. The blend seems pitch perfect, elegance with breadth, complex but not overly so and a classic DP in every sense. The French region of Champagne (comprised of the towns of Rheims, Epernay, and Ay) was the first region in the world to make sparkling wine in any quantity. Today, the name of the region is synonymous with the finest of all sparkling wines, and winemaking traditions of Champagne have become role models for sparkling wine producers, worldwide. Surprisingly, the region of Champagne is now responsible for only one bottle in 12 of all sparkling wine produced. Styles of champagne range from the basic brut (often blends of several vintages), single vintage champagnes, and rose. What a magnificent bouquet for this Dom Pérignon 2012! Pastry, a hint of smoke and classic brioche notes provide a compelling counterpart to eager yet elegant aromas of citrus (lime, tangerine and kumquat) joined by those of fresh fruit, herbs, liquorice and menthol. There is even a refreshing note of ivy. The palate is tense, vibrant and very fresh despite its impressive density, which meets its match with an unending finish. This 2012 embodies the very essence of Dom Pérignon with such a concentrated degree of intensity, along with a capacity for ageing that it is surely destined for a second life in a P2 edition. Drink 2021-2050.

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of vineyards in Champagne are planted with Chardonnay and it performs best on the Côtes des Blancs and on the chalk slopes south of Epernay. It is relatively simple to grow, although it buds early and thus is susceptible to spring frosts. It produces lighter, fresher wines than those from Burgundy and gives finesse, fruit and elegance to the final blend. It is the sole grape in Blancs de Blancs, which are some of the richest long-lived Champagnes produced. Which grapes are included in the blend, and their proportion, is one of the key factors determining the style of most Champagnes. Three grapes are used - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. For the second year and vintage in a row, Champagne Dom Pérignon was forced to conduct the declaration of its new vintage Dom Pérignon Vintage 2012 in a virtual setting. In a 45 minute video cellar master Vincent Chaperon presented the new wine in three locations – vineyard, cellar, tasting room – before taking questions from 10 journalists in a live Zoom hook-up. It is for this reason Chaperon makes great store of the importance of blending – his three dynamics of which are selection, pre-blending and final blending.

In its youth, Dom Pérignon shows incredibly smooth, creamy fruit with perfect balance and weight. As it ages, it takes on wonderfully toasty aromas and a finesse equalled by very few of the other Grandes Marques. It begins with a vision: Dom Pérignon’s creative ambition strives towards harmony as a source of emotion. When it comes to wine, France stands alone. No other country can beat it in terms of quality and diversity. And while many of its Region, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne most obviously, produce wine as rare, as sought-after and nearly as expensive as gold, there are just as many obscurities and values to be had from little known appellations throughout the country. To learn everything there is to know about French wine would take a lifetime. To understand and appreciate French wine, one only has to begin tasting them.Can one single glass be created to fully express the champagne across years, Plénitudes and colors? Thus guarantee the best tasting experience: on the eye, on the nose and on the palate. Dom Pérignon chose to take on this challenge with the experience of Richard Geoffroy, passing on its intangible legacy to its successor, Vincent Chaperon, and the savoir-faire of Maximilian Riedel, CEO of Riedel, and 11th generation of the family. Under the creative leadership of cellar master Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon is reinvented with every vintage. The miraculous concept of assemblage – the delicate balance between Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – and the commitment to Vintage are instrumental in the act of creation, revealing the wine's extra soul.Precise and tactile to the point of seamlessness, tense through rhythm and vibrancy, vigorous and fresh yet mature, intense and complex – such is the sensual style of Dom Pérignon: so inviting, yet so mysterious...

Incredibly complex nose of dried green apples, grapefruit pith, preserved lemons, toast, oyster shells, cloves, sourdough, salted caramel and quince. Layered, refined and so sleek, with salty minerality and a toasty edge to the dried citrus. Structured and tense, yet elegant and almost endless. What a magnificent bouquet for this Dom Pérignon 2012! Pastry, a hint of smoke and autolytic notes provide a compelling counterpart to eager yet elegant aromas of citrus (lime, tangerine and kumquat) joined by those of fresh fruit, herbs, liquorice, and menthol. There is even a refreshing note of ivy. The palate is tense, vibrant, and very fresh despite its impressive density, which meets its match with an unending finish. This 2012 incarnates the very essence of Dom Pérignon with such a concentrated degree of intensity, along with a capacity for ageing, that it is surely destined for a second life in a P2 edition. (YC) A rigorous selection process in both the vineyard and winery ensures that only the best grapes go into Dom Pérignon champagne. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are used in roughly equal proportions without one variety dominating the other. Weather: The 2012 weather has been hallmarked by many as very challenging but has created some stunning Champagne. Relatively low yields due to various weather conditions throughout the year. The winter months brought some frosts and hail which damaged the early stages of bud burst. August and September were very warm and this helped rescue and give the grapes a stunning maturity. The video was called ‘Revelations’ which presumably was chosen as the start of an ongoing series of instructional masterclasses from the House, rather than a reference to the apocalyptic book in the Bible in which we all meet a fiery end – with no glass of vintage Champagne in sight.First he gave us an insight into the 2012 vintage, a ‘solar’ year noted for its warm summer that saved this turbulent growing season. A year full of paradoxes for winemaking, 2012 gave birth to a great vintage, surmounting multiple challenges. Nature proved unpredictable and implacable as a series of climate events descended upon the vineyards: frost in the winter and spring, torrential rains, hailstorms, and cold spells while the vines were flowering, plus intense heat waves over the summer. A warm and dry climate alleviated any concerns as to the health of grapes, favoring the maturation of the fruit. The beginning of the harvest stretched from September 10 to 26, depending on the parcels. Tasting the grapes revealed tremendous promise, with a balance between freshness and generosity. Classic lemon-zest and tension nose that I associate with Dom Pérignon, but with extra weight and depth. And quite marked phenolics on the end which suggest this will have a remarkably long life. And, as Vincent Chaperon readily admitted, will definitely show up as a P2 star. Clean and neat and with light smokiness on the finish. Dom P always plays the reduction card. Hugely impressive persistence. Still a baby. 18.5/20 points+ (JR) The “Dom Pérignon” glass came to life in a creative process that unfolded over the course of a year. The new glass emerged through numerous tastings and ultimately took form following critiques and refinements. Dom Pierre Pérignon was appointed "cellarer", or administrator, of the Abbaye d’Hautvillers in 1668. For the next 47 years he dedicated himself to creating "the best wine in the world. " Dom Pérignon’s creative ambition is a constant quest for harmony as a source of emotion.