Dom Perignon, P2 Plenitude Brut 2008

Description

Dom Pérignon is always a vintage wine and can only be produced from the grapes of a single year. For each vintage, a limited number of bottles are set aside in the cellars, predestined for longer maturation. With this extra time, the inner activity in the bottle increases. The yeast transfers its energy to the wine… a mysterious transfer of life. After close to 15 years, expansion of energy reaches its peak and Dom Pérignon rises to an apex of essential, radiant vitality in its state of Plénitude. Elevated to new heights, it unfurls across every dimension – wider, deeper, longer, more intense – gifted further with an almost infinitely extended longevity. Thus, Dom Pérignon is patiently elevated to a new summit of expression. We call it Plénitude 2.

THE YEAR 2008 IN THE CREATIVE PROJECT OF DOM PÉRIGNON A YEAR OF “LATE CHAMPENOIS MIRACLE” The year 2008 was dominated by grey, overcast skies. But nothing is ever a foregone conclusion. Like in 2004, the year was fresh and mild, with a limited influence of the sun, leading to a late ripeness. It was the month of September which saved the day, allowing for a miraculous maturity as in 1988 and 1996, or more recently in 2024. The “champenois miracle” had happened, and this vintage was born to become a classic, everything in it allowed for the assemblage of a wine with a fresh, luminous and precise profile, showing an elegant and ethereal personality. At the same time, everything was there for Dom Pérignon to revisit such classicism by imparting more substance and complexity to it. VINTAGE 2008: THE NEW CHAMPAGNE CLASSIC Each time Dom Pérignon encounters the scenario of the champagne classic, each time there happens a renewal, like a chance of rebirth. This is an opportunity to refocus and envision the progression accomplished since the last encounter. These occurrences are like milestones, whose repetition is beating the time within the spiral of creation uniting all Dom Pérignon vintages. Between each of them, climate is evolving, global warming is increasing, and Dom Pérignon is aiming at more substance, more depth, more maturity. If this Vintage 2008 is like a bridge uniting all these reinvented classics, it also has an even greater resonance in this movement, as its declaration actually coincided with the handover between Dom Pérignon Chefs de cave Richard Geoffroy and Vincent Chaperon. This was the culminating point of their collaboration, the telling of a shared vision, the achievement of a dialogue between the global and sophisticated understanding of the first, and the bold intuition of his successor. Here, to revisit the archetype is to discover a quite different experience – one that is more sophisticated, more intriguing: one that goes further, so much further. The creative intention behind Vintage 2008 was to add to the champagne classic a complement of thickness, density, and length. The light is warmer and less harsh. Initially somewhat slender, the champagne gains substance, with no hint of dryness. Its firmness becomes athletic. Its acidity is less exaggerated, better integrated, as if embraced, rounder, more supple. This intention goes along with an extended time of maturation on the lees, which even led to reveal Vintage 2008 after the release of Vintage 2009. This extended time to reach the first Plénitude couldn’t help but trigger the desire of some day experiencing the second Plénitude. DOM PÉRIGNON VINTAGE 2008-PLÉNITUDE 2: TENSION AND MOVEMENT The additional years of maturation on the lees have put the wine into motion and created a link tighter as ever between the natural reality of the year 2008 and the shape invented by Dom Pérignon. The initial direction of Vintage 2008 is still there, precise, like a coated muscle lying on a frame of acidity, yet a shift has happened. During the seven additional years of maturation leading to the second Plénitude, Vintage 2008 didn’t stay put: like a tightrope walker, progressing on a high wire, it kept on exploring the surrounding volumes of its own sensitive space. Throughout this exploration of various dimensions, it has acquired more deepness, it radiates toward many directions. In a paradoxical and creative way, it is the encounter of differences and opposites that gives access to a morecomplete harmony: precision, purity, accuracy, tension… yet something else is happening. Dom Pérignon Vintage 2008-Plénitude 2 has widened. As it lands on the tongue, its edges are climbing up the palate, fulling a more complete tactile space. The acid frame is entwined with bitter and umami hints, as if it was braided, hence becoming more consistant. It unfurls like the Kanagawa wave, scintillating, radiating, lilting. Candied lemon, bergamot, white peach, cocoa, roasted coffee. Its freshness is vibrant as well as silky, with a solar presence, slightly iodized. TASTING The initial direction of Vintage 2008 is still there, precise, like a coated muscle lying on a frame of acidity, yet a shift has happened. Dom Pérignon Vintage 2008-Plénitude 2 has widened. As it lands on the tongue, its edges are climbing up the palate, fulling a more complete tactile space. The acid frame is entwined with bitter and umami hints, as if it was braided, hence becoming more consistant. It unfurls like the Kanagawa wave, scintillating, radiating, lilting. Candied lemon, bergamot, white peach, cocoa, roasted coffee. Its freshness is vibrant as well as silky, with a solar presence, slightly iodized. Vincent Chaperon, Chef de Cave August 2024

About the Producer

Dom Pérignon has always stuck to its founder's vision: always excellent yet always improving. Each vintage is made through delicate assemblage and adjustment, resulting in the mysterious blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. It isn’t specifically what Dom Perignon created in his forty seven years as the cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers, it is the innovations and enhancements that he discovered. At this time in history, sparkling was thought of as faulty wine and was quite dangerous as refermenting in bottle caused explosions. Dom Perignon resolved to sparkling wine tastier and safer. He pioneered the mixing of base wines from specific vineyards to enhance the style. So he hand-picked the fruit to ferment by blind tasting the grapes to assess them strictly on their flavour and the way they might style once blended with alternative grapes he had access too. This was a serious departure from the quality wine creating techniques of the day. He additionally pioneered the pressing of red grapes and straightaway fermenting the juice to create white wines from red grapes. With regards to safety, he introduced the utilization of thicker glass bottles able to withstand the pressures of sparkling wines and used Spanish corks rather than wood to seal the bottles. These corks were traditionally tied to the bottlenecks with Hemp string, a forerunner of today's wire metal cages. Many celebrities enjoy success with Dom Pérignon. In 1995, rapper Little Shawn, protégé of Diddy at that time, dedicated a whole song to the champagne brand. The music video also featured a cameo appearance of late rap star Notorious B.I.G. drinking Dom Pérignon. To put it short: A bottle of 'Dom P' stands for success!