In Champagne, the mainstay is non-vintage bubbles, produced by blending wine from a variety of years. All 370 houses that make sparkling wine in the region offer bottles without years on them—except for one. Dom Pérignon only releases vintage Champagne produced from a single harvest. While other maisons can take the opportunity of a less-than-stellar season to increase their stock of base wines, if the quality of the vintage is not up to snuff there will be no Dom Pérignon. This is exactly what happened in 2023, when after months of grape maturation in the vineyard, a full harvest, and primary fermentation in tank, cellar master Vincent Chaperon didn’t feel the wine met Dom Pérignon’s standards. Realizing the entire 2023 vintage was just not good enough, Chaperon rejected the entire cellar of base wine.
Other wineries sometimes don’t produce wine in a given year, but that’s usually related to weather or natural disaster, such as smoke taint ruining a whole vineyard’s yield. Dom Pérignon doesn’t require such extremes to scrap a vintage, in fact ,this is already the fourth time it has done it this century, coming on the heels of not releasing bottles from 2001, 2011, and 2014. So we spoke to Chaperon about why he made the call to kill 2023.
Of course, 2023 began much the same as other vintages. “We start every year with the potential of around 1,000 plots, all sourced from the best climats across 15 grand crus and 10 premier crus of Champagne.” Many individuals participate in the process too: “Thousands of people are involved in the harvest of grapes, which are still 100 percent hand-picked. Hundreds are involved in the winemaking process,” he points out.
However, when it comes to the final selection and blend, a much smaller cadre of experts is on hand. Four others in the inner circle make the creative decisions about what will be in the bottle, and the final determination is made by Chaperon, including the verdict that 2023 Dom Pérignon would not see the light of day. “In this process, the expertise and intuitions of each team member are welcome and important to hear,” Chaperon says. “But at the end of the day, I am the one who makes the final decision.”
Instead of releasing a 2023 vintage, the Champagne house hosted a museum exhibition about the discarded wine.
Egami
The 2023 season in Champagne was marked by extremes; Chaperon points out that hot and humid conditions until mid-August led to the early development of diseases and rot, which weakened the grapes’ ripeness. This was followed by a cold and humid period before one more heatwave hit. He says that July 2023’s temperatures were suffocating, clocking in with the hottest month on record. Heat and water are necessary elements in the maturation cycle of grapes, but it seems there was too much of both and not at the right time. That said, Chaperon did not give up hope until after a test assemblage was made from the best plots. “Just like in sports, you must maintain your thirst for victory until the very end,” he says. “I never share my doubts with the team until the final results are in.” But as many sports fans know, there comes a point where you know a season can’t be salvaged and it’s best to move on. That’s what Chaperon decided about 2023.
The financial toll of not having a product to release after caring for vineyards, harvesting grapes, paying employees, and going through primary fermentation looms large. While Dom Pérignon does not release production figures, and the widely repeated claim across the internet of five million bottles per year seems wildly inaccurate, we think the best estimate may come from Decanter, a reputable source in the wine world, which suggested several years ago that the figure is “upwards of a million bottles.” With suggested price of $295 for the current vintage, the loss at retail would be at least $295 million, but that rises significantly when we consider that late disgorged Dom Pérignon, which the house refers to as a Plenitude, sells for almost double that amount.
Chaperon and his team memorialized their lost vintage by commissioning an exhibit at Barcelona’s Palau Martorell museum titled “Trace: Pré-Assemblages 2023” that documented the creative and physical steps that went into making a Champagne that will never be released. Open to the public for several days in July to coincide with the release of Dom Pérignon 2015 and Plenitude 2 2006, it was explained to visitors that the word trace refers to the evidence one leaves behind that is not always apparent, such as the warmth and imprint in an upholstered chair after one stands up and walks away. Like many winemakers, Chaperon comes across as much more of an artist than a businessman, so it makes sense that he chose to commemorate the 2023 vintage with an art exhibit rather than a notation on a balance sheet.
