Dom Perignon Oenotheque 1996

Dom Perignon Oenotheque 1996

Greatest. Aperitif. Ever. If you can only have one Champagne before you die, this is it.

Regions: France
Producer: Moët & Chandon.
ABV: 12.5%
Style Champagne Cuvée Prestige
Champagne Style: Vintage 1996
Bottle volume: 750mL
Closure: Cork

Tasting Notes
Nose
The praline rapidly combines with citron and dried figs. Darker underlying iodine and peaty notes also emerge.

Palate
There is an apparent paradox, with concentration and movement vying for ascendancy. The structure of the wine is tense and assertive. Its energy, almost tactile, is contained for a moment before vibrating and exploding. Its opulence then becomes superbly persistent, trenchant and persuasive.

Winemaking Notes
Vintage
The year was full of contrasts and the summer changeable, with the wetter periods never quite making up for the earlier hydric deficit. Eventually, in the month before grape-picking (16 September), it was as much the spells of hot weather as the influence of north-easterly winds that led to the original maturity of the vintage.

One of the secrets that make the style of Dom Perignon is the fine balance between maturity and rich features in their cellars, allowing wines to age gracefully for an unlimited period of time, becoming one of the best base wines the world.
To achieve this style, Vintage champagnes launches after seven years of maturity this exclusive champagne. Also, a small sample of each harvest are kept stored as a real gem for much longer, to give continuity to the course and the magnificence of its natural qualities.
 Only one person - the owner of the winery of Dom Perignon - you can decide when and how to revive a champagne. When released for the second time, and achieved the distinction of being recognized as a Oenotheque.
The label indicates that a Dom Perignon Vintage Champagne Oenotheque reached its second peak of maturity, gaining strength and ideal body after 15 to 20 years to harvest their grapes. There are also cases in which the champagne reached its third peak, with a perfect and admirable complexity, after 30 years of storage.
Only the teacher can attest bodegero ideal time, when the champagne accomplishes this second stage of major change, and they may only be released as Oenotheque.
When this happens, each bottle Oenotheque is proved or rejected by the testers as a way to ensure excellence and quality under the strict standards of Dom Perignon.