All You Need to Know About Dom Perignon

The prestige champagne Dom Perignon is produced by Moet Chandon. This is the top of the line in its field. It is, quite frankly, one of the best wines available to the consumer and has a price tag that reflects this.

Dom Perignon is derived from a Benedictine monk who made great advances in the improvement in quality of champagne, but contrary to popular belief, did not invent the champagne production method.

While the very first vintage of Dom Perignon was produced in 1921, it was some fifteen years later before it actually entered the market. Dom Perignon is a vintage champagne, meaning that it is only made in the best growing years. This means that it is very unlikely that a batch is produced every year, it is usually only produced every few years when the crop has had a good growing season. Vintage champagne requires all grapes used in production to be from the same year.

In contrast, many other champagnes make a yearly production and will use grapes from a number of years. The is one of the main contributing factors to the quality and why Dom Perignon is held in such high esteem.

Each vintage of Dom Perignon usually yields around 5 million bottles. The champagne usually consists of 55% Chardonnay and 45% Pinot Noir. Coming into 2009, the most recent release of Dom Perignon is from 2000, while the Perignon Rose is a 1998 vintage.

Dom Perignon is shelved and aged for at least one year before it gains the renown silky feel that it is famous for.

The current (2009) winemaker is Richard Geoffroy and has held that position since being appointed in 1998.

With such an internationally acclaimed champagne, Moet Chandon have a full time task of distributing the champagne to local regions around France all the way to the sunny pastures of Australia.
To find out more, visit our page on dom perignon prices.