2003 - Dom Perignon, P2

The 2003 Dom Pérignon P2 takes all the natural intensity of the first release and turns the dial up to eleven. Power, generosity and volume are all exalted. The P2 balances richness with a greater sense of creaminess that comes through extended time on the cork. Readers should expect a ample, heady Champagne that is very much built for the dinner table. I can"t say I am especially surprised by how well the P2 shows, even in this freakishly hot, dry year, as the first release continues to be terrific. (Originally published in May 2021)

The 2003 Dom Pérignon P2 is rich and demonstrative, wafting from the glass with aromas of stone fruits, honeycomb and buttered toast that leave more space for the wine's generous fruit tones than the more overtly yeasty original disgorgement. Full-bodied, broad and textural, it remains very youthful despite its below-average acidity, with notable precision to its ripe fruit tones and chalky structuring extract that provides, to some extent, a compensating sensation of freshness; it's actually evolving more slowly than its 2002 counterpart. Given the wine's richness, it works best with food. Chaperon relates that then-Chef de Caves Richard Geoffroy rejected any musts with a pH exceeding 3.3, the only time this metric has been used as a basis for selection for Dom Pérignon, and that the juice was allowed to oxidize before vinification. I'm looking forward to seeing the 2003 in its P3 incarnation, as I suspect that the wine will really come into its own when it develops more tertiary notes.

After a particularly harsh, dry winter came crop-shrinking frosts in early April. Then late May was exceptionally hot and the mercury stayed high, heralding the hottest summer the Champagne region had known for 53 years and the driest in a decade. The harvest began on 21 August, the earliest Champagne harvest since 1822, producing a ripe and healthy crop. The Dom P team maintain that 'the contrasting weather conditions during the year resulted in remarkably luscious, highly concentrated grapes, recalling the legendary vintages of 1947, 1959 and 1976.' (See Bollinger on 1976.) The notoriously daring vintage of Dom Pérignon at 18 years old in recently disgorged form. Rich, broad nose with notes of candied mandarin – not instantly recognisable as Dom P on the nose. Toasty palate entry and still quite rich on the palate, thanks to lower than usual acidity presumably. Again, there was no fear of phenolics when making this wine as the logic was that the phenolics would make up for the softness of the acidity. This is now a gentle wine with very much its own personality. Soft and smoky at the start and then saline and refreshing on the finish. It's more like a bit of told-you-so evidence than, necessarily, the one Dom P you would choose from the current range available. But, boy, does it persist! (JR)