People love lists, compiling them, reading them, arguing over them. If a human being can find something to write a list about, they will. “My top ten actors”, “my ten least favourite books”, “America’s 10 most wanted”, “top ten sausage producers in the UK” . Doesn’t matter what the list, people lap them up. I’m not going to bore you with my top ten wines, but if I did, at the top of the list you would see 1966 Dom Perignon. It still, five years after I had it, remains the best wine I ever had. I think that I may now be looking through rose tinted glasses at it now, as I have had some stunning wines since, so I’d like to try it again, just to make sure it is as good as I recall.I’d have liked to try it for my 30th birthday this week, but sadly I couldn’t find one. So I decided that I’d have to settle for three Dom Perignons, the 1985, 2000 and 1995 Oenotheque. Oh it’s such a hard life…
When Jay Zed and Fifty Pence were rapping about Cristal, my crew and I were bigging up D.P. It’s a stunning wine, the Julia Roberts of the champagne world. When young, Dom Perignon is ‘Pretty Woman’ Julia, sexy, yet fun and quite bubbly, zesty and lively. Then when older, both the champagne and Ms Roberts becomes more sophisticated and gently elegant. They both entice you to explore them more and yet, when they choose to, they can both become the bubbly fun filled, yet still very sexy, experience they were in their youth. I never tire of Dom Perignon, and, as you may have guessed, never tire of Julia Roberts!
Dom Perignon 2000 is good. Light, citrussy and very minerally. A lot of apple and biscuit flavours. Dried lemon rind and a lot of biscuit on the palate. A long, spicy finish with a lot of pencil flavours! Very good and very clean. It is exactly what I thought it would be, and if you are used to trying young DP, this is the sort of wine under the heading “Textbook Dom Perignon”.
The Oenotheque 1995 was a surprise. It was very mature and was a very very nice wine. Rich, nutty aromas with a lot of honey and toast. I got a bit of distillery washback from it too. The palate is rich, a lot of heather honey and then a salty, dry Jacobs cream crackers flavour. A lovely lemony finish, and a brilliant wine was over. This isn’t a cheap champagne, but if you want something really good for a special occasion, buy this.
Finally, and all to soon, was the 1985 Dom Perignon. A wonderful wine that is exactly at the point I want DP. Very rich, so much heather honey, cheese and yet very floral. The palate was intense with a lot of woodland mushrooms, lime pith and a malty element to it. Bitter pencil and bundles of spice. So good….
Add in a barbecue and it wasn’t a bad birthday at all….
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