Ratings & Tasting Notes:

100 points — Jane Anson, June 2021
Easily the best Champagne she had all year, first tasted at a château lunch and impossible to stop thinking about afterwards — she eventually bought a bottle for her husband’s fiftieth. So much power and precision, while still holding delicacy, easy glamour and the most moreish delivery of fresh acidity and fleshy citrus. As it opens, toasted brioche, liquorice root and oyster shell curl out of the glass.

98 points — Decanter, October 2021 (panel tasting)
Michelle Cherutti-Kowal MW found brioche, almonds and red apple on nose and palate, with great balance between dosage and acidity and an excellent combination of fruit and bottle age. Stefan Neumann MS noted top-notch salty, mineral, iodine-like aromas and a wonderful sourdough character with delicate roasted nuts — depth and drive, elegance and power. Matt Walls called it deep, intense and full-bodied, voluminous, generous, very powerful and thunderous, very long and so harmonious. “This is a great wine.”

98 points — Jeb Dunnuck, December 2018
Noting this was the first time the estate released a wine out of order, because they loved it enough to give it additional ageing. A rich, powerful wine that still shows incredible purity and elegance, with a stacked, concentrated feel. It is rare to find such ripe, pure, concentrated fruit paired with this level of purity, focus and precision. Dunnuck called it “a legendary Dom that surpasses all the great vintages of Dom I have experience with, including the 1990, 1996, and 2002.”

98 points — James Halliday, June 2021
Seven Champagnes were submitted at prices significantly higher than this one, yet none was better than this vibrant, elegant, incredibly youthful 2008. Gold, and named to the Top 100 of 2019.

96 points — Wine Advocate, August 2022
The reviewer tasted the 2008 with outgoing chef de cave Richard Geoffroy at an event in Beaune, then retasted it several times afterwards. As the release marks Geoffroy’s retirement after twenty-eight years, it also marks an important event in the history of the house, commemorated by a special label. His tenure transformed this cuvée, and what he achieved is certainly impressive.

96 points — Wine Spectator, November 2018
Power in a graceful Champagne, with vivid acidity swathed in a fine, creamy mousse and flavours of toasted brioche, kumquat, pastry cream, candied ginger and poached plum dancing across the palate. An underpinning of smoky mineral gains momentum on the lasting finish. Top 100 Wines of 2018, Highly Recommended.

19.5/20 — Jancis Robinson, November 2018
So much more austere than the 2009, and really, really dense. The acidity is far more obvious, and there is so much packed in there.

Cult Wines International Notes:

Dom Pérignon takes its name from the Benedictine monk who served as cellarer at the Abbey of Hautvillers from 1668, and who spent the rest of his life pursuing what he called the best wine in the world. The modern cuvée follows one rule above all: it is made only from a single harvest, never blended across years, and only in vintages the house judges worthy. Richard Geoffroy was chef de cave for twenty-eight years, from 1990 to 2018, and in that time produced fourteen blanc vintages and eleven rosés, transforming the cuvée and its standing in the process. On 1 January 2019 he handed the cellar to Vincent Chaperon, who had shadowed him since 2005. The Legacy Edition was released to mark that handover, and it is the only Dom Pérignon ever to carry both men’s names on the label.

The 2008 broke another rule: for the first time in the history of the house, a vintage was released out of sequence, the 2009 preceding it, because the 2008 was judged to need more time. Chaperon calls it a miracle year — everything looked set to go wrong, and it ended up flirting with perfection. The blend is an even split of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Expect white flowers, citrus and stone fruit lifted by aniseed and crushed mint, with toasted brioche, kumquat, pastry cream, candied ginger and poached plum, and a smoky mineral undertow gathering on the finish. Vivid acidity swathed in a fine, creamy mousse. Long, chalky and linear.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.

Condition:

Please note: The bottle shown is the exact bottle being sold.

Bottle in as-new condition. Black foil capsule intact and unmarked, with the Legacy Edition neck band present and fully legible. Front label clean, bright and fully legible, the 2008 vintage clearly shown.