History of Dom Perignon

The History of Dom Perignon

Before we discuss the history of Dom Perignon, if you would like to see examples of our family produced Champagne, you can do so HERE.

Dom Perignon Champagne House

We don’t use Dom Perignon in your personalised wedding Champagne bottles, but this summary of an article is a very interesting read all the same.

There are many top Champagne brands out there, one of them of course is Dom Pérignon and they are currently undergoing a shift when it comes to their leadership. The wheels were set in motion some time ago and it will be very interesting to see how this particular Champagne house develops over time.

Dom Perignon Champagne

Once recent change for example concerns a certain Vincent Chaperon – it was January 1st 2019 that he took over as the new Chef de Cave. He is taking over from Richard Geoffroy who served in that position himself for a good 28 years. In all likelihood the transition will no doubt be seamless as they have worked alongside each other for nearly 15 years.

Coincidentally, the departure of Geoffroy is happening at the same time that the next Dom Perignon vintage is being released, that is the 2008. Geoffroy described this as being similar to the vintage from 1996, so if he is correct it will be some vintage to look forward to. The 2008 was an unusual year in terms of weather as there were many differing weather patterns, and the result was that it took longer for the vintage to mature.

Dom Perignon Vintage

There is of course a difference between a vintage Champagne and a non-vintage Champagne, in fact check our recent blog as we discussed this and how we don’t use them for our personalised wedding themed bottles of Champagne. A number of factors are involved, among which are how the grapes are harvested and for the length of time that they age. For example, one requirement is that they must age for a period of three years in order to achieve the correct maturity.

Vintage Champagne

A vintage of course is sourced from grapes from the same year. This obviously means that less vintages are produced and so are more expensive. The vintage bottles from Dom Perignon can be seen as the flagship bottles from Moët & Chandon, they are one of the biggest and most famous winemakers in the world, as well as being a part of luxury products chain LVMH.

Dom Perignon Brand

Geoffroy pushed the brand into unchartered territories while engaging in a number of marketing opportunities which the company had not previously enjoyed. It was around this period that chefs started to gain a celebrity status, and with many of them incorporating Dom Perignon into their menus it was a match made in heaven for them.

Chaperon who is originally from Bordeaux and moved to the Champagne region two years ago, has in fact spent the best part of two decades with this Champagne house, and in that time has helped with 13 harvests and out of those declared 4 of them to be vintages. It is inevitable that since they have worked so closely together over this period of time that many of the skills and tricks of the trade employed by Geoffroy will have rubbed off onto Chaperon.

The two of them first met each other back in 1999, it was at this period that Chaperon had graduated from Montpellier, and from here he started working for Moet & Chandon. His first task which lasted over a year was the management of natural cork stoppers for the group that is Moet-Hennessy.

Dom Perignon Tradition

Chaperon is aware that he and Geoffroy have been trained differently, but he is adamant that their values are the same, in that they create depth as well as meaning. Importantly a characteristic they both share is that they respect what the other is trying to convey to them.

Chaperon that it is important that the brand must be pushed and developed ever further forward over the coming years. The importance of keeping existing customers happy while bringing on new ones the ever important balance.

The first edition of the Dom Perignon vintage of 2008 that will be released will be the Legacy Limited Edition, there will be another release later this year.