Why Dom-Periognon Is So Damn Expensive!

The majority of the wine menus across India today feature various Dom Pérignon vintages priced in the range of Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000. Though, that’s just the initial point. Based on which edition you desire to pour, the price tag can be as sky-scraping as Rs 1,96,970 a bottle (for the Dom Pérignon 1973 Plenitude P3). Therefore, what makes Moët & Chandon’s Dom Pérignon so posh?

For starters, every 10 years the champagne is made only six times. And each one of these bottles is produced in years when the rain, hours of the sun, temperature, grape maturity, and such assure to create good champagne. The grapes are sourced from as many as 300 unlike vineyards across France, with many Grand Crus, more or less all owned by Moët & Chandon. Each Dom Pérignon is aged a least amount of seven years, and they usually have two more releases of each vintage, first at nine and after that at 25 years.

The dazzling wine is made using both red (Pinot Noir) and white (Chardonnay) grapes, the ratio of both ranging amid 40 to 60 percent, basis the production of grapes that year. Juice from both kinds is first fermented individually and then blended. During the course of pressing, sulfite is added to get rid of any wild yeast, and the company’s own yeast is further added, one each for the primary and secondary fermentation. Although no official number has been shared by Moët & Chandon, it is predictable that about a million bottles of each vintage are produced.

The history of this bubbly goes back approximately 400 years, when a priest, Pierre Pérignon came to serve at the Abbey of Hautvillers and devoted himself to making the best wine in the world. While he did not create the Dom Pérignon we know these days, he was keenly involved in cultivating winemaking techniques and aided the Hautvillers vineyard’s growth to twice its original size. His introduction of recognizing wines basis their grapes, combination of white and red grapes for one wine, and extracting white wine from red grapes, made his creations a favorite with the then King, Louis XIV. Till date, the manifesto created by Perignon is followed while creating the house wines. And the abbey’s 18-century underground caves which widen over 29 kilometres house the bottles, which are rotated by an 8th twice a day, to make sure no dead yeast cells remain.

The most current launch in India was that of the Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2 P2 2000. It was first released in 2008 and is a full-bodied, sensual and balanced champagne. The bouquet opens up on the nose with warmth of brioche and hay, paired with bergamot orange as well as russet stone fruit. The palate is greeted with toasted malt and licorice with a hint of unpleasantness. Grills, steaks, pastas–full meals are model to enjoy this vintage. Just like the Plénitude 2, each collection has its own compound, exclusive notes, and you have to try it to recognize it. Priced at Rs 60,000 excluding taxes.

The keen care taken to generate each single bottle is evident, as is the consequential expensive tag. Though, the Dom Pérignon is best tried when you’re well familiar with wines, as it’s a champagne to be implicit. Yet, if you basically want to try it for the experience, there’s no cause to wait.