Dom Perignon Vintage 2009

The wine in this vintage

2009 was a warm, sunny vintage, with an even summer and a calm harvest that delivered ripe, healthy fruit. It produced Champagnes with rounded fruit and an enveloping structure, more hedonistic than austere. Dom Pérignon Vintage 2009 channels that generosity through yellow fruit, candied citrus, almond and gentle spice, while the palate is soft and silky, held together by a discreet but sufficient freshness. Wine Spectator rated it 96 points. This is a Dom Pérignon that already gives a great deal of pleasure, and it can be cellared for several more years to develop deeper toasty and complex nuances.

The producer · Dom Perignon

Dom Pérignon takes its name from Pierre Pérignon, the Benedictine cellar master of the Abbey of Hautvillers in the late seventeenth century, whom tradition regards as the spiritual father of Champagne for his pioneering approach to blending. The house, closely tied to Moët & Chandon and now part of LVMH, released its first vintage, the 1921, in 1936, effectively inventing the prestige cuvée. Dom Pérignon is made only as a vintage wine, and only in years judged worthy, from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir drawn from the finest crus of the region, with Hautvillers as its symbolic home. The style pursues a constant tension between the two grapes, between power and precision, with a mineral, toasty signature that unfolds slowly over years. Alongside the Vintage, the house releases a Rosé and the Plénitudes, later releases of the same vintage after far longer ageing on the lees, which show how the wine transforms with time. Few names embody the very idea of great Champagne so completely.

Critics' scores

• 96 Wine Spectator
• 17/20 Jancis Robinson

Technical details

Producer

Dom Perignon

Region

Champagne

Country

Francia

Type

Bollicine

Vintage

2009

When to drink

Hold, still evolving

Critics' average

96/100

Sizes

75 cl, Magnum 150 cl, Case of 6 × 75 cl

eWibe code

0420109