Everyone with a taste for luxury would be well familiar with the name Dom Pérignon. Christened after the legendary monk of the Benedictine Hautvillers Abbey in France, the house of Dom Pérignon remains one of the champagne world’s most prestigious and sought-after names. Loyal devotees got a special treat when the much-awaited Dom Pérignon P2 1998 vintage was finally revealed in Kuala Lumpur recently.
With a list of just 20 handpicked guests, the select invitees dutifully assembled at Bangsar’s edgy Hit & Mrs restaurant for dinner, which was booked out for the occasion. Guests were surprised and delighted when they learnt that the maison’s Chef de Cuisine, Pascal Tingaud, had been flown in to prepare the four-course meal, which would be paired with four expressions of Dom Pérignon. Welcomed by Mathieu Duchemin, Managing Director of Möet Hennessy Diageo, together with Charles-Antoine Picart, Dom Pérignon’s Business Development Manager for Asia-Pacific and the USA, we began with Dom Pérignon Vintage 2004, whose classic toasty notes and vibrancy proved to be a delicious match for the first course of langoustine, papaya and caviar tartare.
It was, however, the next champagne that everyone had come for and it certainly did not disappoint. Dom Pérignon, at any time, is special enough in itself but when it is a P2, extra attention is demanded. Essentially a rebranding of its Oenothèque collection, the maison has chosen to re-release the 1998 vintage under the P2 label for the first time to mark the champagne’s second plenitude. Designed to showcase its exceptional alchemic properties over time, Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon’s hallowed Chef de Cave since 1990, has long held the belief that Dom Pérignon doesn’t just mature in a single linear trajectory, but in distinct leaps of new expression, which are called “plenitudesâ€.
Each leap, according to the celebrated cellar master, embodies its own universe of characteristics and harmonies – the result of a carefully monitored maturation process. Categorising this unique development into three distinct plenitudes, this showcasing of certain Dom Pérignon vintages at the finest moments in its evolution also means the maison will be safeguarding the stock carefully, to be released at selected timeframes as Geoffroy deemed fit.
Certainly, the extended ageing time has done the wine several favours, including endowing it with an immense length, amazing breadth and intensity of flavour and, for a 16-year-old champagne, tremendous energy and freshness on the palate. It is hardly surprising then it’s already been rated 98 points by Wine Spectator. “Releasing after a timeframe of 16 years offers a very different expression of Dom Pérignon,†says Picart. “Richard uses the word ‘energy’ a lot and I think you’d agree it is intense and vibrant and, for a wine this age, pretty outstanding!†A monochromatic dish of Chilean seabass and squid ink-enriched shellfish jus was chosen as accompaniment, followed by guinea fowl with ginger red curry and a most pleasing osmanthus sorbet paired with Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 2003.
As the final treat in an already liquid starry night, Picart announced we would also be tasting the third plenitude – Dom Pérignon’s P3 Vintage 1970. “It was apparently a landmark year in the history of Champagne although I can’t say as, clearly, the wine is older than any of us in the room,†he joked. Tinted an amazing hue, the colour of a fancy canary diamond, it was all richness, sweetness and toast on the top notes, bringing to mind the old nursery rhyme of how the queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey.
Certainly each sip proved to be most regal, affording different scents, nuances and experiences as the champagne opened up like a veritable flower with every passing minute. The nose proved particularly captivating, with figs, hazelnuts and mocha, while the palate was a feast of candied citrus and creamy roundness. While the famous Benedictine monk may or may not have uttered the apocryphally evocative statement of “Come quickly, I am tasting the stars†over 300 years ago, if the 1970 vintage could be compared to any heavenly body that night, it would most definitely be Sirius, brightest of them all.
Dom Pérignon is distributed exclusively by Moët Hennessy Diageo Malaysia.
