Dom Perignon Brut 2013

A monk's name on a modern icon

Dom Perignon takes its name from Dom Pierre Perignon (1638-1715), a Benedictine monk who served as treasurer and cellar manager at the Abbey of Hautvillers. He is remembered as a quality pioneer for Champagne, credited with adopting stronger English glass and tying corks down to hold the bubbles that winemakers of his day often regarded as a fault. Sources differ on when he took up his post at the abbey.

The brand itself is a 20th-century creation. It belonged first to Champagne Mercier and passed to Moet & Chandon in 1927, a gift tied to a wedding between the two families. The first vintage declared was 1921, and the wine first went on sale in 1936, when bottles were shipped to New York aboard the liner Normandie. Until 1947, Dom Perignon was essentially Moet's vintage Champagne in different packaging.

Every Dom Perignon is a vintage wine, a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay whose proportions shift from year to year, from as much as 60% Chardonnay in 1982 to 60% Pinot Noir in 1969. The house releases its best years in stages it calls Plenitudes: a first release after roughly seven to nine years on the lees, then a second (P2) and a third (P3) after much longer aging. The 2013 discussed here is the first release.

The last October harvest

In a century of warm Champagne vintages that have pushed picking into early September and sometimes August, 2013 ran late. A cold, wet winter was followed by a cool, rainy spring, and budding began about two weeks behind normal. 'You never get that back,' Vincent Chaperon said. Dom Perignon began picking on September 28 and finished on October 15, with most of the grapes brought in during October.

That does not make 2013 a cool vintage. Chaperon called it 'the warmest and driest summer of the past 20 years,' and a British merchant describes it as the sunniest on record in Champagne. 'It was an extreme winter and an extreme summer,' he said; 'global warming is not only about an increasing of average temperatures, but also about more extremes, and 2013 is an example.'

The result, in his telling, was a wine with two big characteristics: concentration from the warm, dry summer and freshness from picking late, in lower temperatures and weaker sunlight, which kept acidity high. He named 2004 as the last comparably late harvest, and judged the 2013 higher in weight and density than 2004 or 1992, two other late years. 'It is the last of the Mohicans,' he said, because an October harvest may never come again.

A Burgundy specialist reviewing the release described the vintage as almost 20th-century late, with a superb line of acidity that only long hang time can deliver, and with terroirs sharply defined: cool and classic in the northern Montagne de Reims, ripe and complete in the south.

Vincent Chaperon's inheritance

Richard Geoffroy ran Dom Perignon's cellars from 1990 to 2018, nearly three decades. Vincent Chaperon joined the winemaking team at the 2005 vintage and took over as cellar master in 2018.

The 2013 was harvested in the Geoffroy era but launched under Chaperon, who spoke about it at the house's headquarters in Hautvillers in January 2023, before its official release in London that March at a recommended retail price of more than 200 pounds.

The wine is a near-even split of 51% Pinot Noir and 49% Chardonnay, drawn mostly from grand cru sites and Hautvillers. It was disgorged in October 2021 after about seven years on the lees, with 5 grams per liter of dosage and 12.5% alcohol. The house has trimmed its dosage gradually over two decades, to around 4.5 grams per liter in recent releases.

How it tastes

James Suckling scored it 98 points, calling it 'a driven and serious DP' with aromas of chalk, biscuits, apricot stones and lemons. Wine Spectator and Jasper Morris gave it 96, Wine Advocate 95+, and Antonio Galloni 94 or 95 depending on the source, with Galloni comparing it to the 2004. Jancis Robinson MW scored it 18.5 out of 20.

A drinks trade journal tasted it in January 2023 and found ripe yellow fruit and a creamy core, flavors of cappuccino and hazelnut joined by plum and pineapple, crushed chalk and toasted bread, and a gently bitter grapefruit-pith finish, with more to come from another 12 to 24 months in the cellar.

Scale and price

Dom Perignon is not a rarity in the way of a grand cru Burgundy. Estimates of its production run from about 4 million bottles of the white a vintage to at least 5 million, depending on the source. Its collectibility rests on the brand, the consistency of the house, and the way top vintages are re-released years later as P2 and P3.

At release a British merchant listed the 2013 at 200 pounds with a gift box and 182 pounds without. In October 2026 a U.S. merchant listed it at $274.99, out of stock. These are asking prices, not sales.

The numbers

Blend

51% Pinot Noir, 49% Chardonnay

Harvest

September 28 to October 15, 2013

Dosage

5 g/l

Production

Reported at about 4 million to at least 5 million bottles a vintage

James Suckling

98

Wine Spectator

96

Wine Advocate

95+

Jancis Robinson

18.5/20

Timeline

1. 1921

   First Dom Perignon vintage is declared.

2. 1927

   Mercier gives the Dom Perignon brand to Moet & Chandon for a family wedding.

3. 1936

   Dom Perignon goes on sale for the first time, shipped to New York on the Normandie.

4. 1990

   Richard Geoffroy becomes cellar master.

5. 2005

   Vincent Chaperon joins the Dom Perignon winemaking team.

6. Sep 28, 2013

   Dom Perignon begins its 2013 harvest after a late budburst.

7. Oct 15, 2013

   The 2013 harvest ends, with most grapes picked in October.

8. 2018

   Vincent Chaperon succeeds Richard Geoffroy as cellar master.

9. Oct 2021

   The 2013 is disgorged after about seven years on lees.

10. Jan 2023

    Chaperon presents the 2013 at Hautvillers and calls it 'the last of the Mohicans.'

11. Mar 2023

    The 2013 is officially released in London.

12. Oct 2026

    A U.S. merchant lists the 2013 at $274.99 a bottle.

The world in 2013

• Feb 15, 2013

  A meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia, the most powerful since Tunguska in 1908.

• Feb 28, 2013

  Pope Benedict XVI resigns, the first pope to do so since 1415.

• Mar 13, 2013

  Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected Pope Francis.

• Apr 15, 2013

  Bombs at the Boston Marathon kill three people and injure 264.

• Apr 24, 2013

  The Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh kills 1,134 people.

• Jun 6, 2013

  Edward Snowden's disclosures of mass surveillance begin.

• Nov 8, 2013

  Typhoon Haiyan devastates the Philippines.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Dom Perignon Brut 2013 is number 90 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (73 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Dom Perignon was first sold in 1936, fifteen years after its first vintage, with bottles sent to New York on the liner Normandie.
• The brand started at Mercier and passed to Moet & Chandon as a wedding gift between the two families in 1927.
• The 2013 was picked mostly in October, which its cellar master thinks may never happen again in Champagne.
• Budding in 2013 started about two weeks late, followed by the warmest, driest summer in 20 years.
• Until 1947, Dom Perignon was essentially Moet's vintage Champagne in a different bottle.
• The 2013 straddles two cellar masters: harvested under Richard Geoffroy, launched by Vincent Chaperon.