Dom Pérignon visit and two great Champagnes

[jal]

We met our friends S. and K. and drove to Hautvillers where Our friend S. Has good connections and we were given a private tour by a young lady from Japan who usually does tours for Japanese wine lovers of the brand. We were served (by a sommelier!!) the 2008 Dom, visited the abbey, the grounds, a replica of the cellar (apparently the real cellar is too fragile for visits ), got an introduction to the brand and to the winemaking and finished with a taste of the 2002 P2
Here are my impressions:
Obviously the name denotes prestige but as we all know, the product is excellent; the 2008 Dom is a Champagne I’ve had previously and is bright, tight and long with excellent fruit, it is absolutely delicious. The Plenitude 2 or P2 is crazy rich, layered and structured with a strong nose of yeasty brioche, and excellent fruit on the palate, I refused a second glass, I just couldn’t handle the richness, it really needed food.
I though the place oozed luxury and style but tbh I prefer to interact with winemakers when visiting châteaux than young reps. It just feels a bit detached.
Staying in Épernay and visiting Krug Monday.

[AlexR]

Hi Jacques,

I went to a huge Champagne tasting two years ago and the P2 was the star of the show.
Rich is the operative word, but it's not topheavy IMHO.

Krug? I'm not rich, so haven't had it on many occasions. I think one must forget value for money here.

All the best,
Alex

[JimHow]

I hate you.

Sincerely,
Jim How
Coming off a 60 hour workweek.

[brodway]

Jacques

how are you guys holding up in the heat?

Champagne visit has always been on my bucket list

Looks like the world is your oyster and you are sipping it down with bubbly

[jal]

Hi Alex,
I also had Krug only a handful of times, quite excited about the visit. Our traveling companion is very connected in the NYC wine world, and that’s how we get these private tours in Champagne.
The P2 was great and not top heavy as you say, but it is more layered and structured than any Champagne I’ve ever had.

Jim, I love you too buddy If I loved and enjoyed my work as much as you did, I’d also be coming off a 60 hour week. Not everyone is as lucky as you re job satisfaction. And I’m not being sarcastic at all here, I genuinely feel like that.

Emil, the heat is barely tolerable, we’re taking it very easy. One appointment a day, plenty of rest. In Beaune we stayed at the Novotel that had a great pool and that helped. In Champagne no pool, we’re just going easy. And we did have oysters yesterday with dinner

[dstgolf]

Jacques,

Sounds like a great tour. Not long back when we visited Epernay we toured Moet,Pol Roger and Perrier Jouet all on the same street. The underground chalk cellars were amazing and if you have a chance they are a must see. At the Hotel de Ville they had two Champagne Houses tasting their wines and we hooked up with one that was serving up their family champagne produced in Ay which was outstanding. She offered to pick us up at our hotel after she finished and took us back to her fathers Champagne house where we met the family and had a personal tour of their champagne making followed by a sit down tasting of their stable matched with home made paté,charcouterie and cheeses. An unbelievable experience then she took us back to her cousins restaurant for the night where they put on a special meal and she provided us with a bottle of their champagne to enjoy with dinner. I'm not sure if the friendliness still exists in the region but we were blown away by the hospitality and generosity of this family simply from a chance meeting over a glass of champagne at their city hall. Richard Flinaux was the producer and the mainly grow for the big houses but they keep the best back for their own small production. Outstanding if you can find it.

Keep the dialogue coming and we wish you and Jill a fabulous tour.

[JimHow]

That 2008 Dom is indeed absolutely delicious, a big gap between the ‘08 and ‘09.
Yeah, this is the “year of the four homicide cases,” we got the first one dismissed last month, now we are working on the second, the Alaska case promises to be the grand finale. After that I will retire from full time practice and travel to Champagne.

[Comte Flaneur]

Thanks for the write up Jacques, good to read you are getting the VIP treatment. That’s the way to go...

I never tried the P2 but people here rave about it. Last week I drank the 1982 DP and it was just sensational, fully evolved of course with a tad residual effervescent vivacity, and a rich unctuous texture, with plenty of nuance and complexity. Comfortably my champagne of the year.

[stefan]

Champagne is a fun place to visit and J&J visited two of the best places. Congratulations!

As you say, it is even better when you get to interact with the principals. We visited Christian & Danielle Pol Roger for a weekend because we were with Christian's cousin. It was great fun to have the owner take us on a Sunday morning tour of the cellars of Pol Roger.

As for the heat, I dread visiting France in the summer because they (like e.g. Berkeley-its) are such climate change deniers.

[Nicklasss]

Nice report Jal. Keep them coming. I guess being at Dom Perignon is very special, because of the mythical stature of the place.

In the past, I had a colleague in my office that was born in Reims. She's back to France now since a few years and invited me to go visit and enjoy the visit of some Domaines in her company. I don't know why, Marie-Claude never allowed me to go... she was claiming I'm a Bordeaux Wine Enthusiast, not a "mignonne Française de Champagne" enthusiast! Clearly women don't see things like men... i don't see what kind of stories can happen, drinking Champagne with a nice Champenoise.

Nic

[jal]

Good stories, guys. Danny, I found people warm friendly and welcoming almost everywhere. We weren’t lucky enough to go to someone’s house for a meal, but we are enjoying the friendliness of the local people. We went this afternoon to the local “guinguette” in Cumiere sort of a town fair with dancing, costumes, food and obviously Champagne. Everyone was so warm and friendly.
The town of Épernay is gorgeous and we’ll go see the cellars tomorrow before the lunch visit at Krug.
We also had a great lunch at Les Avisés with two excellent wines but on this I’ll report in another post.