Dom Pérignon (1638–1715) was a monk and cellar master at the Benedictine abbey in Hautvillers who pioneered a number of winemaking techniques. He was the first to blend grapes in such a way as to improve the quality of wines and enhancing the tendency of champagne wines to retain their natural sugar in order to naturally induce secondary fermentation.
The Wine
“We do not talk about wine ageing,” said the former chef de cave, Richard Geoffroy, “ageing is dying. Maturation is an active, vital process of evolution.” Even vintages from the 1950s and 1960s share the unique Dom Pérignon quality and, like a fading prima ballerina, they may become more fragile and more brittle, but they never lose that vivacity, grace and balance that defines them.
