Dom Perignon
Oenotheque Brut
Champagne
1996

The producer

Technically the prestige cuvee for the mammoth house of Moet et Chandon but with an individual personality so that it is never referred to as anything except “Dom Perignon” or simply “Dom”.

The Moet vineyard holdings of nearly 1200 hectares allow ample choice for Dom and various vineyards are dedicated to its production – Pinot Noir from Ay, Ambonnay, Bouzy, Mailly and Verzenay and Chardonnay from Avize, Chouilly, Cramant and Le Mesnil, all Grand Crus - only the best fruit from these villages are used for Dom.

First produced in 1921, Dom and Cristal were the first prestige cuvees released and remain top of mind when considering fine Champagne. Dom Perignon is currently produced in three versions. The Vintage, the Rose, and the Plenitude 2 (or P2).  Before the 2000 vintage, P2 was named ‘Oenotheque’.

The wine

Plenitude 2 is the second life of Dom Perignon. For each vintage, a limited number of bottles are set aside, and predestined for longer maturation; and almost 15 years of slow ageing on the lees later, the Plenitude 2 bottles are released to express their “second life” or iteration.  Before the 2000 vintage, P2 was named ‘Oenotheque’.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.