At first this is quite tight on the nose with delicate hints of pear and apple. It is immediately much richer on the palate, developing more with every five minutes that we revisited it. Delightfully ripe green fruits, burnt apple and caramel flavours. This is quite light with impressively balanced acidity. Probably not a champagne for long-term ageing, but a fantastic production from a tough vintage.

Dom Pérignon is only available as a vintage champagne and is only produced in exceptional years. Each vintage is a creation, singular and unique, that expresses both the character of the year, and the character of Dom Pérignon. After at least eight years of lees ageing in the cellars, the wine enters its first phase of interest, Plenitude 1, showing quite youthful fruit and broad texture from the lees contact. The signature Dom Pérignon aromatic is that "hint smoky" character a result of the reductive winemaking where they go to extreme lengths to keep each step of the winemaking process free of oxygen. With every sip of Dom Perignon you always have that purity of fruit character, depending on the vintage you normally see the Pinot Noir fruit dominate, which are those red fruits like raspberry, peach and dark cherry. The Chardonnay adds a supporting layer of chalky texture and delicious fruit in the yellow spectrum like plum, apple and tropical notes of pineapple. With production just 20-25% of the volume of 2004 and the smallest of Richard Geoffroy's tenure, this release lasted just under six months.

The 2005 vintage was unpredictable and full of contrasts. The weather was mostly warm with little rain, however a heatwave in August followed by a cool and rainy September moderated initial anticipation. In the end, a drastic selection in the vineyard ensured a limited volume of exceptional quality and indeed, 2005 was an extremely short vintage.

Vineyards: 100% Grand & Premier Cru
Grape Varieties: 60% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir
Ageing: 8 years on the lees
Dosage: 5 g/l
Drink: Now to 2025