Dom Perignon 2003 (750ML)

95 VM / 93 WA / 93 DE / 18 JR

The 2003 Dom Pérignon is maturing very gracefully in bottle, wafting from the glass with aromas of smoke, bread dough, waxy lemon rind and confit citrus. On the palate, the wine is ample, vinous and full-bodied but retains excellent definition, and it's structured around chewy dry extract from mature skins, which compensates for its comparative lack of acidity. It will be interesting to follow its evolution over the coming decade. - WK, Wine Advocate

2003 was a controversial vintage in Champagne because of the intense summer heat in Europe that year. For Richard Geoffroy, this was the most extreme and challenging vintage in his 30-year career at Dom Perignon. The heat meant the vines began to shut down, while the sugars were moving off the scale, so he took the decision to pick very early. In doing so, he saved the day. ‘For me, this was a seminal vintage and gave us confidence that we could make good wines in warm years like '06 and '09,’ says Geoffroy. The acidity is certainly soft and languorous here, with a full, ripe and densely textured palate displaying a spectrum of flavours ranging from cappuccino to bruised apple, cream and caramel, followed by a savoury edge and a pleasing bitterness on the finish. This is now fairly mature but will keep a while longer. - JS, Decanter

Richard Geoffroy is particularly fond and defensive of this because so few people managed a fine wine in this heatwave vintage and he describes it as ‘a triumph of winemaking! Most exhilarating and satisfying. And it really created a team spirit that has continued to this day’. Yield was only 20 hl/ha. He admits it was released too early. ‘Wait for P2 2003!’ he assures us.
Much less expressive nose than the 2004 so I suggested people tasted it beforehand so that it would not be overwhelmed by the 2004. Great tension. There was some suggestion of a dry spice – a hint of a cinnamon stick. Great balance. It just falls away a little on the end. - Jancis Robinson