Dom Pérignon P2 Rosé 1996: Review
Michael Edwards reviews the newly released Dom Pérignon P2 Rosé 1996 along with its older sisters, the 1995 & 1993...
Dom Pérignon’s chef de cave Richard Geoffroy was eloquently realistic about Champagne’s place in the world, talking before the launch of the Dom Pérignon P2 Rosé 1996.
‘There’s one world of fizz,’ he said directly, ‘Champagne is not alone, there are many good sparkling wines in both hemispheres. We cannot take anything for granted.’
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Dom Pérignon P2 Rosé reviews:
Certainly, from Tasmania to Trento and Mendocino County to Mesnil- sur- Oger, we live in a golden age of sparkling wine as much as we do of fine still wines.
‘The Champenois, need to raise their game to protect their status and the grandeur of their wines. But it is the grandeur of constraints, of different challenges of one vintage to another.’
Dom Pérignon in its famous non-oxidative style ages slowly over many years Each vintage undergoes three peaks of maturity or plénitudes. In the years between these peaks, when the bottles are resting on their lees, the wine is undergoing a transformation and metamorphosis.
The three vintages shown had their own unique challenges:
1996
A year like no other in a difficult test of maturity and very high acidity.
1995
Superb, bountiful fruit and vinosity
1993
A Cinderella, whose beauty was forgotten in the recession of its time, now in full bloom.
‘DP is the Ying and Yang of Pinot and Chardonnay, with 17- 20 percent red wine added in the Rosé,’ Geoffroy rounds up. ‘We are making a statement about Pinot Noir. We are really going for it.’
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Dom Pérignon, P2 Rosé, Champagne, France, 1993
This could be called the forgotten vintage, as it arrived after the Gulf War of 1992 when Champagne was in recession. It also rained at the wrong moment dashing hopes of a great Pinot vintage. Yet experts spoke too soon: the 1993 shows what the DP team can do in adversity. Classic colour of aged Pinot-led Champagne, old gold with salmon highlights and a lovely flow of tiny bubbles. Scents of tobacco play second fiddle to citrus and peach. Beautifully textured mouthfeel of vinous complexity and dominant core of Pinot Noir fruit. In great shape at 23 years old. Tops.
1993
Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon, P2 Rosé, Champagne, France, 1995
The familial trait handed down by 1995 finds its focus in generous and extrovert fruit. The wine is pleasingly different to the 1996, showing raspberry compote, redcurrants and a hint of buttered toast, followed by voices from the kitchen garden - herbs and a little sousbois - then a long, magisterial finish. Silky and seductive, such is its instant appeal that you may be disinclined to be patient.
1995
Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon, P2 Rosé, Champagne, France, 1996
The 1996 rosé is a touch unresolved, its tension hitherto dominated by the acidity and its shape less at ease with itself than with the magnificent white from the same year. A faint whiff of goat’s cheese, a tad unsettling in itself, is countered on the palate by more traditional descriptors, with redcurrant, cranberry and cherry all inscribed in the notebook. The acidity is persuasive and the length is good, and patience is sure to be rewarded here - it's maybe one to revisit in three or more years.
1996
Dom Pérignon
