Dom Perignon drinks in the city of delight

DOM Perignon chose Istanbul to host the launch of its prized 2002 vintage rose. Just why became apparent as the character of the wine was revealed.

wine

EARLIER this year a group of journalists from around the world gathered in Istanbul for the launch of Dom Perignon's 2002 rose vintage. Why launch a French wine in Turkey, you ask? It's a question that was on the mind of nearly every journalist at the launch.

According to a representative from Dom Perignon, a media outlet from every market that the Champagne house operates in was at the launch in Istanbul. In other words, this was a big deal and a significant release for Dom Perignon.

WISH was lucky enough to be invited as the only Australian media outlet in attendance. Seasoned wine writers and editors from publications in Britain, France, the US and China (all big Champagne markets) as well as more general publications from all over the world, such as this one, spent a full day together travelling around Istanbul on a specially curated guided tour, seeing some of its famous sights and eating plenty of Turkish food. Throughout the day and soon after introductions were made, the most common question was along the lines of: "So do you know why this launch is happening in Istanbul?" The answer, like the tasting of 2002 rose, would be revealed later.

Luxury brands such as Dom Perignon don't do things on a whim and the company's marketing plans are always well thought out and, in many cases, planned years in advance. So surely there had to be a logical reason why this particular vintage was being presented in this particular city. Not that anyone was complaining. For the serious wine writers, a visit to the house's vineyards in France, while no doubt very nice, is probably all in a day's work. But Istanbul, on the other hand, is sufficiently far away from the Champagne region of France to be considered exotic, and at the same time it's close enough (it's partially in Europe) to not be too foreign. It's fair to say that Dom Perignon chose Turkey as a way to create some buzz around its new release and to get the media excited. Not that it needed to create a diversion from the wine - more on that later - but if one wanted to, Istanbul is the place to do it.

Istanbul is the only city in the world to straddle two continents: one arm reaches out to Asia and the other to Europe with the Bosphorus Strait separating the two. The city is the commercial, historical and cultural capital of Turkey, even if it isn't the country's political capital; that honour goes to Ankara. It is a city like no other, at the crossroads of East and West. It's a metropolis that dates back to 660BC and one that has had three different names during that time (Byzantium, Constantinople and, since 1930, Istanbul).

Today it is a city that is once again undergoing significant change. In 2011 Turkey, officially an emerging market economy, recorded the highest economic growth in the European Union thanks to its trading relationships with Europe and the Middle East, and it has one of the strongest economies in the world. Earlier this year the Turkish government announced plans to build the world's largest airport in Istanbul that, when completed, will be able to handle 150 million passengers a year (the first stage is due to be operational in 2017). Given the city's strategic geographic position and economic growth combined with the calamitous situation many European economies are in, Istanbul has the potential to reshape the balance of power in Europe.

Our itinerary in Istanbul started with a morning boat trip on the Bosphorus to the Spice Market, also known as the Egyptian Market, at the entrance to the Golden Horn, the waterway that divides the European part of the city. There was lunch at the famous Pandeli Restaurant, situated above the Spice Market, a visit to a contemporary art museum, a brief guided tour of the city by a fantastic guide, but no Champagne to be had. In the afternoon the group made its way back to the Ciragan Palace, a former residence of the Ottoman sultans and now a Kempinski hotel, to taste the 2002 rose vintage with our experiences of Istanbul fresh in our minds and the time to savour it before a gala dinner that evening.

In a long ballroom with soaring ceilings and views over the Bosphorus, a series of tall tubular rooms had been erected in tulle where one by one we were encouraged to sit and contemplate the view while we sampled the 2002 rose. "It's like a confessional," said a Dom Perignon representative, "where you can taste the vintage and be alone with the vintage." It was a high-drama tasting and one designed to reflect the importance of the vintage for the Champagne house.

According to Richard Geoffroy, Dom Perignon's chef de cave since 1990, the vintages being produced in the 2000s are some of the best the house has ever produced and can be placed alongside legendary vintages from the 1960s and 1920s. "In my view, it's really in the top three decades of the last century - it's that good," he says.

Dom Perignon is produced by Moet & Chandon and is the house's prestige vintage Champagne. Dom Perignon is always a vintage Champagne, meaning that it is not made when the harvest is what the chef de cave considers a weak year as all grapes for the vintage must be grown in the same year. It is always an assemblage of chardonnay and pinot noir (roughly half and half, although the final composition can lean as far as 60 per cent on either grape variety). When the harvest is good, the company "declares" a vintage. Since the first vintage in 1921, which was released for sale in 1936, a total of 39 vintages have been declared. The first rose vintage is 1959 which was first sold in 1971 when the Shah of Iran ordered several bottles of it for the 2500-year celebration of the Persian Empire.

But it seems in the recent history of Dom Perignon nothing beats 2002. "We released the 2002 white first - many houses would have released the rose first, but we did it differently - and we had an outstanding reception to that vintage," says Geoffroy. "I think we could have kept selling that vintage of 2002 for ever. People wanted to stick to that one for good, which is very embarrassing because there is life after 2002. But then 2002 strikes again with the Dom Perignon rose so, voila, there is good news.

"The success of the 2002 vintage with the white and hopefully also with the rose is really about the ripeness of the fruit and the richness of the wine. It's something so satisfying and so seductive - and I am not ashamed of being seductive, there is nothing wrong with that. I would obviously say there is a bit of winemaking skill in there, but the thing when it comes to the 2002 vintage is mother nature - it was that special."

However, according to Geoffroy it was a close call and 2002 could have been a disastrous year for Champagne. "There is a saying in Champagne that translates to 'August makes the taste' and we didn't really have good conditions until the end of August. There was not good sunlight in the beginning and we desperately need the light for the photosynthesis and the ripening of the fruit. Then there was the water stress. The whole of 2002 had been water stressed from winter through to picking [the 2002 harvest started on September 12 and lasted until September 28] and that too holds back the ripening because you need water to support the process in the soil.

"But then comes the miracle: early September and a spell of rain. But we were still nervous because in 2001 we lost the vintage through rain in late August, which lasted for weeks; but in 2002 it only lasted for a few days and it unlocked the process of ripening in the fruit and it reached new heights that nobody would have expected. And as well as the rain you need good light and in 2002 we had an almost Indian summer with golden light for about six weeks and well through the picking, and it really made the picking. In the chardonnay grapes it translated into something rather lush and candied, almost close to over-ripeness; the pinot noir was ripe in the sense of being forceful and intense and, between you and me, I think the star of the vintage is the pinot noir."

In listening to Geoffroy describe the conditions in Champagne in 2002, two words come to mind: global warming. "You know what?" he says when the subject is brought up, "it's true global warming has been good for Champagne. But if you ask me if global warming continues, will we continue to get better vintages? To an extent yes, but the question is for how long. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but we are just working on this and trying to anticipate the process, but the truth is as we speak today it is very good for us. But you still have to work and you still have to have a vision; you can't be complacent and rely on mother nature.

The 2002 rose is not really rose in colour at all. It is darker, almost amber-like, golden. In Istanbul, it was served in traditional wine glasses rather than Champagne flutes and, according to Geoffroy, there's a reason for this. "The glassware has to be large and ample enough because I have a very simple rule of thumb and that is you taste what you see. If you see such a wine in a narrow glass it will taste narrow; it is so depressing to see a great wine served in something where it is so cramped for room that it cannot spread and stretch its wings."

Describing wine or food or fragrance is almost an exercise in poetry and in the hands of a master such as Geoffroy the description can be as intoxicating as the wine. "The ripeness of the fruit translates into richness, meaning ampleness. To me there is a major case of volume and extension. Extension here is not something solid or dense; it is something very aerated and creamy. There is a sort of creamy chew to the wine, the way you can almost eat the wine, which I think is a terrific expression. So, an ampleness with round shoulders and an underlying structure. There is a duality to the wine; it flirts with excess without succumbing to it. There is tension in the light and dark, the light being the fruit and the dark being the minerality; the tension of being ample and caressing and yet so precise; but the major tension is really being so rose and so Dom Perignon at once."

Which brings us back to Istanbul. "Why Istanbul?" asks Geoffroy before the question is posed. "It all started for me on that idea of the golden light which we had in Champagne in 2002 and that Istanbul is famous for. That's what started it but also the duality of light and dark, a bridge between two worlds that are far and close together at the same time, of East meets West and the tension between the two, the clash of cultures. And then even more because this city is seductive and sensual as well. Don't you agree?" he says as he gestures to the view outside the Ciragan Palace ballroom. "We have a philosophy of rose at Dom Perignon and that is that it has got to be the holy grail of winemaking. It's an object of fascination to wine lovers and it's a lifelong project for the winemakers that is so fickle and even when you've bottled it you're not certain that it will deliver on the final moment of tasting, you never know. It's part of the game, but the reward is ... the wine is crafted for ever. In 100 years it will be excellent still. I will sign my name to that, but I'm afraid I won't be here so you will have to trust me."