Champagne Brut Dom Pérignon P2 2000 75cl

A beautiful nose of baked peach, lime blossom and graphite draws you into the glass of this stunning 2000, whose flavors of brioche, salted almond and spun honey are wrapped around sleek, mouthwatering acidity and a streak of smoke-tinged mineral. Hard to stop sipping this deftly meshed Champagne. Drink now through 2030

The 2000 Dom Pérignon P2 is striking. More importantly, it is absolutely delicious right now. Baked apple tart, brioche, spice, vanillin, ripe pear and crushed rocks all flesh out. Creamy, layered and inviting, with soft, voluptuous curves, the 2000 offers a lot of sheer pleasure. Although, perhaps not quite as complex or structured as the very best P2s, the 2000 is wonderfully alluring. Interestingly, in 2000, the Blanc and P2 are not as different as they typically are. The P2 has a bit more volume and freshness than the Blanc, but both wines share a distinct toasty, slightly reductive character.

The 2000 Dom Pérignon P2 is drinking beautifully, wafting from the glass with complex and gently reductive aromas of iodine, lemon oil, tangerine and oyster shell that have begun to develop appreciable tertiary nuance. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and expansive, with a broad attack, incisive acids, a classy mousse and a long, precise and mouthwateringly saline finish. The year 2000 delivered a precocious Dom Pérignon, and this recently disgorged rendition has really benefited from the additional time sur lattes, acquiring notably more complexity—while retaining more energy—than the original disgorgement. Given its maturing profile I would plan to drink bottles within the next decade.<br/>The eagerly anticipated 2008 Dom Pérignon was at last released at the end of 2018, and happily, I had the chance to taste it with the charismatic outgoing Chef de Caves, Richard Geoffroy, at an event in Beaune. I subsequently retasted the wine several times at my office in the United States. As the release of this vintage marks Geoffroy's retirement—effective January 1, 2019—after 28 years with Dom Pérignon, it also marks an important event in Dom Pérignon's history, commemorated by a special label. It's fair to say that Geoffroy's tenure has transformed this cuvée, and what he has achieved is certainly impressive. Since 2003, which few Champagne houses declared as a vintage and which Geoffroy made waves by opting to release, Dom Pérignon has been produced in every year with the sole exception of 2007, reflecting a decision to embrace the personality of each vintage more wholeheartedly. While cynics might observe that this decision has obvious commercial appeal, the wines have largely justified it—even if some vintages are obviously stronger than others. Geoffroy has also sought to pick riper fruit, harvesting late by the standards of the region in pursuit of more mature grapes. Especially for a cuvée of this size (production is confidential, but most estimates land north of five million bottles), that's decidedly unusual, reflecting an admirable willingness to take risks in pursuit of quality. Dom Pérignon today delivers more flesh, vinosity and texture than it did two decades ago. To my palate, the wine would be even more exciting if those qualities, admirable in themselves, could be married with greater energy and incisiveness—and perhaps slightly lower dosage—but that's likely an unreasonable counsel of perfection at this scale. Geoffroy's successor, Vincent Chaperon, has worked with his predecessor for the last 13 years, and it will be exciting to follow Dom Pérignon's evolution under his direction. In any case, the 2008 is unlikely to disappoint readers, as this ripe but racy vintage has synergized beautifully with the Dom Pérignon style. As readers will know, winemaking here is quite reductive, with the vins clairs vinified in stainless steel on the lees with full malolactic fermentation, followed by bottling and eight to ten years sur lattes before the first disgorgement. Yet the 2008 is less overtly autolytic and reductive in style out of the gates than the last handful of Dom Pérignon releases. Geoffroy's perception of the 2008 vintage is very much linked to reflection on the 1996 vintage, a heralded year that he feels was generally picked prematurely, before the fruit had attained full phenolic development. And while the 1996 Dom Pérignon is one of several undeniably superb wines produced in that year, Geoffroy's observation does appear to be supported by the disappointing evolution of more than a few 1996s today. With the similarly styled 2008 vintage, the Dom Pérignon team therefore sought riper grapes, and the wine is clearly richer and—as Geoffroy puts it—more muscular than the 1996, though cut from similar cloth. To my palate, it's also the finest Dom Pérignon since the 1996, displaying a racier, more lively profile than the 2002, and it should be a very promising candidate for extended bottle age. In additio