Polarization and extremes feel good to a few. This is the case of the latest vintage of Dom Pérignon presented, at the end of this spring, in the monastery of Santa María la Real de Valdeiglesias, a place reminiscent of the Hautvillers abbey, where the history of the champagne most associated with a luxurious experience.
2004 was a year of extreme weather that brought a late harvest in the midst of two decades of early harvests. This exception made the chef from Cave imagine that the 2013 vintage, considering the ripening time of the grapes, would be harmonious, limpid and of as extreme a quality as the environmental events that had taken place that year. It took a decade of maturation on the lees to confirm his intuitions. Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013 undoubtedly recovers the connection and legacy of the maison's glorious late vintages.
Clarity is the attribute that the French house highlights in this vintage. Clean, transparent and harmonious lines that justify declaring and celebrating this vintage in style.
The Romanesque monastery has been the setting chosen by Dom Pérignon to symbolize the glorious mark left by the passage of time due to the work of men. Let ten years go by to achieve harmony and perfection in an environment of concord and silence, where the solidity of the Romanesque, a Baroque façade, a Renaissance cloister and a Gothic vault mix without making noise. The message is clear: wisdom comes from mastering proportions, finding balance and knowing how to wait.
All these virtues come together in a glass of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013. Inspired by the values of clarity, delicacy and elegance. Chefs Diego Guerrero and Carlo Cracco accepted Dom Pérignon's challenge: to achieve the harmony of textures, colors and flavors with an exclusive four-hand menu that would reflect the five facets of champagne: precision, intensity, tactility, complexity and minerality. The result has been a proposal as harmonious and balanced as the House's own Vintage 2013.
Carlo Gracco is for many the master of contemporary Italian cuisine who dares with the most audacious combinations, he has grown up in the kitchens of Veneto and has evolved alongside Alain Ducasse in France. He is recognized worldwide for his truffle research and from his homonymous restaurant in Milan (one Michelin Star and Three forks) he leads the European culinary avant-garde. Diego Guerrero for his part is a libertarian from the kitchens of DSTAgE (two Michelin stars). He trained in Bilbao and interprets haute cuisine from the flexibility of codes and relaxation.
The experience of the presentation of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2013 ended with the synchronization of movements achieved in the shows by the French artist Sadeck Berrabah, who created a unique choreography for the occasion. The choreographer managed to harmonize the arms and heads of 40 dancers between the columns of the monastery in a delusion of harmony and uniformity that evokes all the facets of the 2013 vintage of French champagne.
Time has been the only sculptor of Dom PérignonVintage 2013. The metamorphosis of this vintage has required a decade of active maturation in the shadows of its cellars. The perspective and distance provided by the passage of time is what allows the house to understand the identity of each vintage. Long, high-quality creative processes are limited. In the case of Dom Pérignon, this limitation translates into the exclusive production of wines from a specific vintage, testimony to the vintage of a unique year, as winemakers recall that it was 2004.
If the harvest does not meet the optimal criteria of harmony and quality, it can even be decided not to declare the vintage. "An elegant clarity" promises the winery that will be felt by those who do not want to skip this privileged vintage, one of the best sparkling wines in the world.
