Last week, J Wray & Nephew partnered with Moët-Hennessy to release the DomPérignon 1998 P2 champagne to the Jamaican market. Moet & Chandon and Dom Pérignon brands are owned by French luxury giant Moët Hennessy o Louis Vuitton (LVMH).

A portion of every vintage of Dom Pérignon is retained and aged within the cellars. This allows each new generation of winemakers to taste older vintages, to understand the history and unique style of the wine, and most importantly to observe how each vintage develops and matures with age.

Why is Dom Pérignon so special?

To understand what makes this wine so special and rare, it is necessary to appreciate how Champagne is made and more importantly, how it is aged. Champagne begins its life as ‘still wine’ made with the very best grapes, and then a very special mixture of sugar and yeast called a “liqueur de tirage” is added to the wine. The yeast eats the sugar and a second fermentation occurs producing carbon dioxide (the bubbles), which is now trapped in the sealed bottle. Also trapped in the bottle at this time is the dead yeast; the bottle is laid to rest and age – in the industry jargon “the champagne is resting on its lees (the dead yeast)”. This is the important part: by law non-vintage Champagne must not be sold for 15 months after harvest, and vintage Champagne (all Dom Pérignon is vintage) is not allowed to be sold for 36 months. Dom Pérignon, which only makes Champagne in the very best years with the best weather conditions, holds its Champagnes for at least seven years.

What exactly is P2?

Dom Pérignon’s Chef de Cave (what the winemaker is called in Champagne) Richard Geoffroy explained their discovery about the ageing process. Rather than improving steadily as is the case with many wines, Dom Pérignon peaks at three distinct times during its life cycle, although the timing of the peaks may vary from vintage to vintage. The first peak (‘phase de plenitude’ in French or P1) at about seven years, is the stage when the wine is at its most vibrant and the majority of the vintage is released into the market. The second peak -P2- usually occurs between 15 and 23 years and is the stage when the wine takes on greater depth and vigour. The third – P3, from 25 years onwards, is when the wine reaches full maturity and takes on an extra dimension of complexity. So to simplify, Dom Pérignon holds back some of the Champagne for a lot longer, tests it along the way and then re-releases it when it gets to that second peak – P2. The current P2 is the 1998 vintage. It was originally released and sold back in 2005, so if you happen to have a bottle of the 1998 vintage, no matter how perfectly stored, it would not have aged like the 1998 that is still resting on the lees in the original unopened bottles at the winery. Dom Pérignon used to call its late-release Champagnes Oenothèque, but this name will now be retired.

So how did it taste?

I wish we’d had the original release 1998 to taste side by side with the 1998 P2. However, J Wray & Nephew poured copious amounts of Dom Pérignon 2004, which showed elegant white fruit on the nose supported by silky fresh beautiful balanced palate, classic toasted notes to give a rounded finish and denote a fully realised maturity.

The Dom Pérignon P2 was softer, smoother, more elegant and much more exquisite. I was very surprised by its energy and vibrancy coming from a 1998 wine. Let’s just say that after the Dom Pérignon 1998 P2, one did not want to go back to Dom Pérignon 2004 P1.

Moët & Chandon’s Ambassador Nathan Benfrech ended the tasting by reminding the select group that only 50-60 bottles of Dom Pérignon 1998 P2 will be available for sale in Jamaica.

Rarefied luxury comes with a price tag of $70,000 + tax per bottle. There was for Thursday evening last an introductory offer.

Christopher Reckord – Information Technology Entrepreneur & Wine Enthusiast. Send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope @chrisreckord and on Twitter: @Reckord