Community Tasting Note

• Purple Tooth wrote: 92 points

  June 20, 2021 - Ok, last time i was being nice. This time, I will dare say, To me, this Champagne is more hype than anything mind blowing. Yesterday afternoon, this was totally outclassed by a Comtes de Champagne 2006 drank side by side. At the end, the Comtes was dust and there was a 3/4 of a bottle of Dom left between 3 experienced drinkers (me, not being one of them), and we unanimously agreed that while this and the CdC are only 2 years apart and age was not a factor, the cdc kept pulling away. In comparison, this was far more energetic with much acidity and finer bubbles, but shot its load within 75 minutes and totally lost steam. I am not a fan of 2008 Dom, and won't buy any more, but always happy to drink yours! I still own a few, but will hold this and see what happens. HOLD

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11 Comments

• thesternowl commented:

  6/21/21, 8:12 AM - Shots fired! Seriously though, thanks for sharing your honest impression. The bottle of 2008 Dom I got to try was pretty fabulous but I wasn't drinking it next to CdC.

• Muledog71 commented:

  6/21/21, 10:31 AM - I also had a bottle yesterday and similary was not as impressed as I was when last had on previous New Year’s Eve. The acidity or lack thereof was the main culprit. The lemony palate was almost enough to put this out of balance. Still VERY GOOD, with a mouthfeel to die for. Have two more bottles and will keep one long term and drink the other in 2-3 years.

• Purple Tooth commented:

  6/21/21, 8:24 PM - Yeah, you’re definitely not alone. I guess I am the unlucky bastard to have gotten 2 mediocre bottles. But with that kind of inconsistency, it’s not for me. I’ve gone through at least a case of 2006 cdc and they ranged from great to sublime at 100 less per bottle. I drink way too much...

• Ispendtoomuchmoneyonwine commented:

  6/22/21, 1:22 AM - The worst Dom I’ve ever had

• Decanting Queen commented:

  6/22/21, 4:21 AM - I’ve only had one so far and thought that it was great. But now I need to get my hands on the 06 CdC

• WST commented:

  6/25/21, 10:52 AM - I thought the same about an '06 DP a few years ago. My wife suggested I stop buying them. However, a recent '06 was stunning.
  I think the '08 is still shut down a bit. It was much more giving on release. I have high hopes for the many bottles I bought. The '06 Comtes on the other hand never shut down. I thought I had bought an ample supply of those, but because it has shown so well for so long, I think I'm down to my last case of those. I came across your note this morning because I was deciding whether to open one of my scarce '06 Comtes or one of my plentiful '08 Doms at a charity wine dinner I'm hosting tonight.

• Purple Tooth commented:

  6/25/21, 11:20 AM - Hi WST, I am not a part of the shut down theory. Especially in vintage champagne where the producers have held back and pre-aged (this one for 11 years) before releasing at THE PERFECT TIME. As a matter of fact, the 2009 came out before this (that's a bigger dog)....I believe that some wines get more interesting with time, but I don't think that they go from being good to being bad and then come back. I say this, even about Bordeaux. They should just get more and more interesting with time until they go the other way.
  
  I think that the biggest problem with this is bottle variation due to mass production and that speaks to the mixed reviews, mixed with other hype. Some can mass produce well, but sometimes sales ambitions take first place. Having had the opportunity to assist a winemaking friend for a few vintage now, I know that there are many things that lead to variation. We clearly know which bottles we want to keep for ourselves and which ones we want to give away...I am not really excited about holding something @ 50/50 probability and hoping...The best thing about this wine for me is the resale value. Thanks for your post!

• WST commented:

  6/25/21, 1:37 PM - We'll have to agree to disagree on a couple of points. In my experience, the quality and consistency of DP is astounding despite annual production of about 5 million bottles. I've heard and seen a lot more in person and online chat about the inconsistency of the 2006 Comtes than any vintage of DP, although I personally have only had a couple of the 2006 Comtes that I thought were less than stellar.
  
  I sort of agree about shutting down; a good wine doesn't turn bad, but they can be quite unyeilding. Northern Rhones are a great example. I honestly think most of my 2008's Champagnes are too young to my tastes. Some I've opened over the past year included the 2008 Taittinger Comtes, Krug 164, P. Peters Chetillons, Cristal, Vilmart Coeur de Cuvée, Guy Charlemagne. While I can tell most have great potential, they seem to offer only a hint of future fireworks. The Cristal is all lemons and little else; the Krug 164 a shell of its potential greatness. I have yet to open an '08 that I felt was close to its apogee (an exception was an '08 Agrapart Mineral). Based on my experience with several other DPs, I'm still optimistic about my 2008's. I may be a minority opinion of 2008's in general, but not in my optimism about the DP. But who really knows?
  
  That said, based on your note and my experience, I decided not to open an '08 Dom tonight. Maybe a 2002 Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Nicolas-François Billecart. That wine is anything but shut down or dull!!!
  
  Cheers!
  Warren

• Badgerchemist commented:

  6/25/21, 1:48 PM - Organic chemist and massive wine-drinker here. The shut down discussion is often misunderstood. There are thousands of chemical reactions that occur in wine on a continual basis. Every one of those reactions has its own unique rate. All of those rates get slower over time as the reactions proceed "to completion" and they approach zero concentration of the starting component. When wines are at their peak, the balance of everything is perfect and the result is sublime, but those proportions will quickly change as the rates of each reaction slow at different rates. This lack of balance is often termed the "shutdown," even though it isn't implying a bad or ruined bottle. As the rates continue to change, the wine will often rebalance, though in a different way than it previously was in balance. These are the stages of the wine and the differences that so many of us savor. The same issue happens with improper storage, but generally in a far more disastrous fashion-the temperature also effects the rates of all these reactions, but in a non-linear way. Overheat a bottle for even a brief period of time, and the resulting imbalance is often impossible to overcome. Just my 2 cents-The best bottle of 08 DP I've had was the first, and its been lacking balance the handful of bottles I've enjoyed since. I still have 4.5 cases remaining though, so I'm quite optimistic for the future!

• Winemaker51 commented:

  6/26/21, 7:19 PM - I do agree with the shutdown theory on 08 DP. Will hold, like many 08 Vintage tête cuvées for a few more years and view cellartracker for consensus as to. When it’s ready to drink

• Winemaker51 commented:

  6/26/21, 7:19 PM - I do agree with the shutdown theory on 08 DP. Will hold, like many 08 Vintage tête cuvées for a few more years and view cellartracker for consensus as to. When it’s ready to drink

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