x
  • Country ranking ?

    883
  • Producer ranking ?

    96
  • Decanting time

    10min
  • When to drink

    now to 2025
  • Food Pairing

    Sea Scallop and Passion Fruit Carpaccio

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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“Champagne Jayne” was recently mentioning in a comment a trilogy of outstanding vintages: 1953, 1955 and 1959. I have the opportunity (or rather, the privilege!) to taste all the Dom Pérignon vintages regularly, which allows me to follow their evolution for the OEnothèque programme. I decided to browse through my notes to offer you these impressions.

1953 Dom Pérignon
(tasted in 2009, no dosage)

1953 was a generous vintage, very expressive right at release (about as totally opposed to 1952 as possible). Rich and full, mellow and luscious, this wine reveals notes of butter, honey and dried apricot. As the wine breathes the toasted character stands out to evolve in the end towards iodine and oyster shells.

1955 Dom Pérignon
(tasted in 2009, no dosage)

1955 was the archetype of the classical vintage that defines harmony in Champagne—maybe the greatest of the decade. Very energetic and racy, remarkably thorough, this wine is at the same time intense and profound. These qualities express the typical, intriguing paradox of youth versus maturity, combining to create a feeling of completeness. Right in the center, the fruit (sultana) is still very vibrant, with notes of vanilla, smoke and praline (sugar-coated almond).

1959 Dom Pérignon OEnothèque
(tasted in 2010, disgorged in 1999, one of the five vintages selected in 2000 for the launch of Dom Pérignon OEnothèque with 1964, 1973, 1980 and 1985)

1959 was an atypical vintage with exceptional ripeness (comparable to 1893 or 1947). I feel this wine managed to accomodate the excesses of the vintage, sublimating it with a very personal interpretation. This wine displays restrained power and opulence, avoiding the pitfalls of oxydation or inordinate heaviness. Remarkably persistent and complex, it exhibits a captivating bouquet of earthy notes: black and white truffle, peat and chocolate with hints of dried fig and even red fruit (!)

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The Story

DOM PÉRIGNON OENOTHÈQUE  / As the custodian of Dom Pérignon’s history and style, Geoffroy watches over a few samples of each vintage in his OEnothèque, the Chef de Cave’s wine cellar. In the OEnothèque, the wine continues to mature for years and even decades, and is reborn with each metamorphosis of time, for Dom Pérignon is unanimously recognized for its impressive aging potential. As Geoffroy puts it, “Dom Pérignon OEnothèque is the ultimate expression of a wine whose style defies time.”

Geoffroy’s commitment to the OEnothèque program, which began with the 1990 Vintage, involves ongoing personal research on each vintage. The effect of time on the bottled wine retains its share of mystery and surprise even for him.

Dom Pérignon keeps pushing one step further, sometimes rewriting the rules, to pave the path for renewed experiences. So does Œnothèque, glorifying the exclusive process of actively aging a wine on its lees to offer a magnified style through re-releases. Œnothèque prolongs the character of the original Vintage wine, coming ever closer to the ideal of Dom Pérignon. The patience of wine lovers is now rewarded with a deeper, more intimate discovery and perception of Dom Pérignon. The current Vintage is put in proper perspective by giving a glimpse of the aging potential. It would now be virtually impossible for me to imagine Dom Pérignon without its Œnothèque expression.

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Average Bottle Price

2016 2015 2014 2010 2005
2 422€ +0.5% 2 409€ +87.0% 1 288€ -26.6% 1 755€ +47.5% 1 190€

This data comes from the FINE Auction Index, a composite of average prices for wines sold at commercial auctions in 20 countries. The average prices from each year have been collected since 1990. This chart plots the index value of the average price of the wines.

Tasting note

ending

Long, Gentle and Pure

flavors

Vanilla, Toasty, Truffles, Spice and Tropical fruits

nose

Complex, Fresh and Opulent

recommend

Yes

taste

Balanced, Multi-dimensional, Well-structured, Full-bodied, Rich, Fruity, Silky and Silky tannins

Verdict

Impressive and Masterpiece

Written Notes

Rather big bottle variation with some light and undeveloped young examples and a number of powerful vintage-typical monumental bottles, which I prefer.
  • 93p
With all the great bottles that have been assembled over the first three years for these magical weekends, I have had the most bad luck with Champagne. The 1959 was not necessarily off, but it was disappointing. There just wasn’t enough sprite and backbone there. It still had some richness and was a touch buttery but unexciting. Maybe these bottles were slightly off after all, or slightly cooked.
  • 91p

Exceptionally complex, revealing aromas of oriental tobacco, honey, liquorice, figs and a blend of coffee and chocolate. The ripeness of the grapes radiates in an opulence that is full, yet never heavy. The warm, ample, fairly sweet attack proclaims extreme body. Well-rounded and exceptionally long, fat and fruit in the mouth. An amazingly fresh finish for the vintage.

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Information

Origin

Reims, Champagne

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Best buy

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

None

Glass time

30min

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