Dom Perignon Brut Rose Champagne 2005

Dom Perignon is a brand of vintage Champagne. It is named after Dom Perignon, a Benedictine monk who was an important quality pioneer for Champagne wine but who, contrary to popular myths, did not discover the Champagne method for making sparkling wines. He pioneered a number of winemaking techniques around 1670—being the first to blend grapes in such a way as to improve the quality of wines, balance one element with another in order to make a better whole, and deal with a number of their imperfections; perfecting the art of producing clear white wines from black grapes by clever manipulation of the presses; enhancing the tendency of Champagne wines to retain their natural sugar in order to naturally induce secondary fermentation in the spring; being a master at deciding when to bottle these wines in order to capture the bubble. He also introduced corks (instead of wood), which were fastened to bottles with hemp string soaked in oil in order to keep the wines fresh and sparkling, and used thicker glass in order to strengthen the bottles (which were prone to explode at that time). The development of sparkling wines as the main style of production in Champagne occurred progressively in the 19th century, more than a century after Dom Perignon's death.

Dom Perignon is always a vintage champagne, meaning that all grapes used to make the wine were harvested in the same year. The wine is not made in weak years, i.e. when the general quality of the harvest is considered to be too low. The earliest market release of a vintage is usually after 8-10 years for the standard champagne, with longer maturation times for special editions like the Second Plenitude or Enotheque (P2)