{"id":1348,"date":"2011-06-23T23:16:04","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T04:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1348"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:14:06","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:14:06","slug":"a-light-lunch-with-dom-perignon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1348","title":{"rendered":"A light lunch with Dom P\u00e9rignon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A very rare treat - the Oenotheque 1996<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How well I remember my long-ago visit to M\u00f6et & Chandon in \u00c9pernay. There was the obligatory photograph at the statue\u00a0of Dom P\u00e9rignon in the courtyard of the M\u00f6et Maison, a rather forbidding brick building on the Avenue de Champagne, a night at the Chateau de Saran, where the company entertains\u00a0its guests, then a delightful lunch in the Trianon \u2013 two elegant white palaces and an orangerie framing a charming garden. Built by Jean-Remy M\u00f6et in 1804 they were a favourite watering-hole for Napoleon and are now used for public relations exercises. It was the same Jean-Remy who had the foresight (and the cash) to purchase the Abbey and vineyards of Hautvillers in 1823, including the tiny room where Dom P\u00e9rignon himself made his contribution to civilisation in the late 1600s. These days it is kept up as a shrine \u2013 and a most satisfactory one. A lovingly tended garden lies at its heart, circled by lichen-covered grey stone walls that draw colour from the afternoon sun. Woodpigeons coo in the trees behind the rose beds; vineyards slope steeply down the hillside, merging into meadows that reach to the placid waters of the Marne.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pierre P\u00e9rignon was 29 when he joined the Benedictine community at Hautvillers in 1658. His duties were those of a procurator, collecting taxes from the Abbey\u2019s tenant farmers, some of whom paid with grapes. Dom P\u00e9rignon used these tithes in his experiments, carefully vinifying wines from different vineyards and villages and then comparing and blending them. His first great discovery was that an assemblage of various wines could be far more delicious and interesting than its separate components.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At that time, casks of the tart, still white wine from Champagne\u2019s cold, chalky hills were shipped to England in the winter, where innkeepers drew it off into bottles which were then sealed with corks. The warmth of the inns rekindled the incomplete fermentation and when the bottles were opened, sparkling Champagne frothed out. Dom P\u00e9rignon figured out what was going on and learned to control the process, pioneering the use of corks and strong glass bottles in France. He also developed a shallow-based press that allowed him to produce clear white juice from black Pinot Noir grapes and discovered that sheep manure was the best fertilizer for vineyards. By the time he died, in 1715, he had done enough to earn an undying reputation as the father of sparkling Champagne.<\/p>\n

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Axelle Araud, oenologue for Dom Perignon, our guide through the vintages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Centuries later, in 1936, Jean-Remy M\u00f6et\u2019s successor, Robert-Jean, Comte de Vog\u00fc\u00e9, was looking for a good name for M\u00f6et & Chandon\u2019s Vintage 1921 Cuv\u00e9e de Prestige, a wine created initially for the American market. Dom P\u00e9rignon was the ideal moniker. Since then it has been made only in exceptional years \u2013 37 vintages to be precise \u2013 its personality and unique style cherished and protected by a series of winemakers who see themselves more as custodians of a tradition than creators. Any chance to taste it must always be seized, so when Franco Stalteri invited me to a small gathering in the magnificent wine cellar beneath Barberian\u2019s steak house, and mentioned that various Dom P\u00e9rignons would be tasted and introduced by Axelle Araud, an oenologue on the team of Richard Geoffroy, Dom P\u00e9rignon\u2019s winemaker and chef de cave, I was down there faster than a gopher with mustard on its tail.<\/p>\n

It was a lovely way to spend a Wednesday lunchtime. I suppose there were nine or ten of us, along with our host Arron Barberian and Axelle Araud. Her commentary was lucid and fascinating. We started with the 2002, one of the great vintages in the region when all the grapes in all 17 of Champagne\u2019s grands crus reached perfect maturity. That, in fact, was the challenge for Dom P\u00e9rignon. The wines from that year were so intense and rich that the great Champagne\u2019s ethereal character was threatened. You can have too much of a good thing! Dom P\u00e9rignon is always around 50-50 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and is the only Champagne to use grapes from all 17 grands crus. It\u2019s different every time and yet it\u2019s always the same \u2013 weightless, gossamer but round and richly flavoured with amazing length. The texture is the giveaway \u2013 \u201cseamless and tactile,\u201d said Axelle, \u201clike a caress on your tongue. Never too dry or astringent.\u201d And it\u2019s pristine. During the winemaking and during the obligatory minimum of seven years\u2019 aging on the yeasty lees trapped in the bottle, it is never exposed to oxygen. Other Champagnes are. Krug, for example, ages its base wines in oak. So Dom P\u00e9rignon is virginal, hinting at toast or almonds or citrus but in a subtle way \u2013 as if you walked into a room on a spring morning and the window was wide open and there was a bowl of lemons on the table \u2013 no more citrus than that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After the 2002, we tasted the 2000 Dom P\u00e9rignon Ros\u00e9, my first encounter with this wine. In all the years, M\u00f6et has only made 21 D.P. Ros\u00e9s. The first one was created in 1959 in honour of the Shah of Iran\u2019s wedding. This too is roughly 50-50 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir but the blend includes red wines for the colour and for a subtle astringency. It\u2019s more intense and vinous and there are red and black berries on the nose. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing with meat,\u201d said Arron Barberian. \u201cLamb tartare in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Arron Barberian, generous host and master of the revels<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our third wine was a Dom P\u00e9rignon Oenotheque 1996. These are fabulously rare beasts, \u201c a confrontation with time\u201d wherein the wine is left undisturbed in the bottle for a further plenitude of five years or even for another 20. The extra time doesn\u2019t seem to age the wine at all \u2013 the yeast contact keeps it young. The 1996 was disgorged in 2008 and as we tasted it on Wednesday it was miraculously vibrant, more intense and biscuitty than the Vintage 2002 with hints of honey and dried citrus peel on the nose \u2013 a curiosity for the true collector, priced around $1500 a bottle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Barberian\u2019s provided a magnificent buffet for us at that point \u2013 big fat PEI oysters (awesome with the Oenotheque), massive juicy shrimp and lobster meat, smoked salmon and charcuterie (fabulous with the Ros\u00e9), an array of Quebec\u2019s finest cheeses, teaspoonfuls of caviar and barely seared scallops topped with a dab of house-made bacon jam. \u201cYou know what we should do?\u201d asked Arron Barberian. \u201cJust in the spirit of intellectual enquiry\u2026\u201d He disappeared into his other (even larger) wine cellar and came back with a Dom P\u00e9rignon 1978. \u201cWho here is younger than this wine?\u201d he asked. A number of hands were raised. He opened it and we tasted\u2026 Sure, it was showing a little age, which suited me no end – I’m English, I love older Champagnes. The colour was darker but it was still awesome, still showing pizazz with buttery notes and the scent of dried fruits. The length was formidable and that telltale texture, like the feeling of silk on bare skin, was unmistakable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sharing the love, Vintages will be including the Oenotheque 1996 and the 2000 Ros\u00e9 in its October Classics Catalogue. The 2002 is on sale now. For the 1978, you’d best be high-tailing it over to Barberian’s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How well I remember my long-ago visit to M\u00f6et & Chandon in \u00c9pernay. There was the obligatory photograph at the statue\u00a0of Dom P\u00e9rignon in the courtyard of the M\u00f6et Maison, a rather forbidding brick building on the Avenue de Champagne, a night at the Chateau de Saran, where the company entertains\u00a0its guests, then a delightful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[98,1,101,99],"tags":[449,452,450,451,453],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1996,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions\/1996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}