Dom Perignon Champagne Brut Luminous 2008 1.5Ltr Case of 3

Rated 100 - Easily the best Champagne I had all year, first tasted at a château lunch. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and eventually bought a bottle for my husband's 50th. Just so much power and precision, while still having the delicacy, easy glamour and the most moreish delivery of fresh acidities and fleshy citrus. At it opens, toasted brioche, liqourice root and oyster shell curl out of the glass. Richard Geoffroy cellar master. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

Deep and generous, yet driven, with delicious salted-butter and salted-caramel notes underneath the initial lemon and chalk. Really expands on the palate in all directions. Lemon cream and shortcrust. Creamy, yet underpinned by a sharp backbone of acidity throughout. Drink or hold.

The 2008 Dom Pérignon is a huge, powerful Champagne and also clearly one of the wines of the vintage. This is one of the most reticent bottles I have tasted. So much so that I am thinking about holding off opening any more bottles! The 2008 has always offered a striking interplay of fruit and structure. Today, the richness of the fruit is especially evident. Readers who own the 2008 should be thrilled, but patience is a must. (Originally published in May 2021)

The 2008 Dom Pérignon is the first time the estate has released a wine out of order (the 2009 was released before the 2008) but the estate loved the wine so much they felt it warranted additional aging. This is a rich, powerful wine that still shows incredible purity and elegance, with a stacked, concentrated feel on the palate. It’s rare to find such a mix of ripe, pure, concentrated fruit paired with this level of purity, focus, and precision. This is a legendary Dom that surpasses all the great vintages of Dom I have experience with, including the 1990, 1996, and 2002.

This wine is yet another confirmation in what is already an extended list of just how great the 2008 vintage is in Champagne. Moreover, unlike some ‘08s which are beginning to display some evident development, the ‘08 Dom is only just now showing some initial secondary characteristics. An expressive nose of yeast, lemon-lime, quinine and Granny Smith apple remains cool, elegant and beautifully layered. The palate impression of the chiseled, indeed laser-like, flavors is borderline painful as the super-fine but quite dense mousse is seriously intense while the bone-dry, equally compact and driving finish is perfectly balanced though still a bit austere. This is quite simply terrific and while it could be popped now, I would suggest waiting a few more years, which is what I will do with my own cache of bottles. I would add that I have experienced some mild bottle variation with the ’08 Dom as some bottles seem slightly more advanced than others but for those examples where I know with certainty the provenance, they remain decidedly youthful.

Unquestionably the finest Dom Pérignon of the decade, the 2008 Dom Pérignon is drinking brilliantly today, wafting from the glass with notes of citrus oil, ripe orchard fruit, peach, buttered toast, pastry cream, iodine and smoky reduction. Full-bodied, rich and fleshy, it's vinous and layered, with a deep core of sweet fruit, racy acids and a long, saline finish. The 2008 is aging very gracefully.

#5 of Top 100, 2018. There's power to this graceful Champagne, with the vivid acidity swathed in a fine, creamy mousse and flavors of toasted brioche, kumquat, pastry cream, candied ginger and poached plum that dance across the palate. An underpinning of smoky mineral gains momentum on the lasting finish. Drink now through 2033.

The 2008 Dom Pérignon Rosé is impossibly youthful. Pinot Noir, notably from Hautvillers (lieu-dit Chants de Linottes) and Aÿ (Vauzelles) bring vibrant red berry and pomegranate fruit overlaid with hints of smoke and spice from the 12 years the wine spent on the lees. The wine makes a powerful impact on the palate, with its abundant, very fine mousse and lively fresh acidity balancing out the wine-like vinous texture and depth of flavour. The ’08 DP Rosé has impressive power and yet never loses sight of its elegance and delicacy; it should start to open in a few years’ time and will continue to improve for another 50 years.