How Moët & Chandon Tasting Notes Can Help You Find the Perfect Champagne

Moët & Chandon tasting notes can help you identify the best labels and vintages to add to your collection. Photo Credit: Wikimedia CC user Andreas Levers

Moët & Chandon produces some of the most age-worthy, valuable, and flavorful wines in the world. However, if you’re new to Moët & Chandon, you might feel overwhelmed by the number of labels and vintages available to choose from. Moët & Chandon tasting notes can help you make your decision. Professional tasting notes are designed to guide collectors and wine enthusiasts to the wines that best match their personal tastes and investment goals. This guide will direct you to reliable reviews for Moët & Chandon’s best labels and vintages. You’ll see what experienced wine experts have to say about specific wines and will get detailed advice on the best bottles to add to your collection.

How Important Are Moët & Chandon Tasting Notes?

If you invest in fine Champagne, tasting notes written by professional critics–which generally also include an overall score–are absolutely essential. Here are a few reasons why:

1. 1. Critic reviews impact a wine’s value. When a respected critic like Robert Parker or Jancis Robinson gives a bottle of Moët & Chandon a high score, it can significantly increase the value of that wine on the secondary market.
   2. Tasting notes help you find wines that match your preferences. Moët & Chandon’s house style is reductive, refined, and refreshing. However, flavors still vary among the house’s different labels and vintages. Professional critics will note these flavor differences in detail, helping you make the best decision.
   3. Moët & Chandon tasting notes reflect changes in the wine over time. Reading the latest tasting notes and comparing those to previous notes allows you to see how the wine is aging. For example, in 2003, critic Chris Kissack tasted a bottle of 1995 Moët & Chandon Dom Pérignon and said the wine was very pale, restrained on the nose, and tight. Four years later, he tried the wine again, and this time, he tasted more rounded fruit flavors and much more complexity.

Compare recent tasting notes to older notes written by the same critic to get an idea of how the wine is developing with age.

When you’re reading Moët & Chandon tasting notes, consider which of these three factors matter most to you. If you want to resell your bottles for a profit, then you should focus on a wine’s numeric score. Collectors who want to drink their wines should look more closely at the flavor profile and specific aromas described by critics. And if you’re looking for a wine to lay down long-term, you should compare recent tasting notes to older notes written by the same critic to get an idea of how the wine is developing with age.

If you’re just starting a collection of Moët & Chandon, first take a look at average scores and typical tasting notes for each of the producer’s labels. While critics may differ over which Moët & Chandon labels they prefer, they generally agree on the labels that are highest in both value and quality overall.

Which Moët & Chandon Labels Receive the Highest Scores?

One of my friends is a huge fan of Moët & Chandon, but he’s grown more and more selective about buying new bottles from the estate. Early on in his collecting career, he’d buy a mix of Impérial and Dom Pérignon labels. He drank his Impérial bottles young while he waited for the Dom Pérignon bottles to mature. However, after decades of collecting wine, he now has limited space in his cellar and can only buy a few new bottles every year. He’s stopped buying the Impérial label entirely because he wants to save room for Dom Pérignon.

There are two types of Dom Pérignon (white and rosé) as well as three plénitudes (Vintage, P2, and P3).

Most professional critics would agree that this is a good choice for anyone who wants to age or resell their Moët & Chandon. While Moët & Chandon non-vintage Impérial labels (including Brut, Nectar, and Rosé) are delicious, they’re not among the most valuable wines this Champagne house produces. Brut Impérial typically costs about $50 per bottle and Wine Enthusiast critic Roger Voss recently gave this wine a score of 89 points. In other words, it’s still a good wine, especially for the price point, but it pales in comparison to Dom Pérignon labels, which critics rate much more favorably. Compared to Brut Impérial, Dom Pérignon is worth around $140 more per bottle, on average.

However, even Dom Pérignon varies in quality and value depending on what’s printed on the label. There are two types of Dom Pérignon (white and rosé) as well as three plénitudes (Vintage, P2, and P3), which are based on how long the wine aged on the lees. White and rosé styles are rated about equally in terms of quality–it’s a matter of personal preference–although rosé is sometimes more valuable because it’s rarer. Dom Pérignon plénitudes, on the other hand, vary in terms of quality.

To find the best Dom Pérignon label for you, take a look at some typical tasting notes for each style:

• Vintage Dom Pérignon: Almond, flowers, stone fruit, and toasted nuts.
• Vintage Dom Pérignon Rosé: Red fruit, violet, honeysuckle, and toasted nuts.
• Dom Pérignon P2 (or Oenothèque): Ripe fruit, brioche, and smoke.
• Dom Pérignon Rosé P2: Darker fruits, pepper, and fig.
• Dom Pérignon P3 (or Oenothèque): Stronger brioche flavors, toast, and hazelnut.
• Dom Pérignon Rosé P3: Dried flower, tobacco, and intense smoke.

These are the terms used most often to describe each of these wines, but as with all tasting notes, they’re subjective; you may find other flavors in the wine that are not listed here. Vintage also has an impact on how the wine tastes, which is why it’s a good idea to read tasting notes for the specific Moët & Chandon vintage you’re interested in as well.

Moët & Chandon Dom Pérignon Tasting Notes by Vintage

Weather conditions play an important role in the flavor of a wine. To find the best Moët & Chandon bottles to add to your collection, take a look at the finest recent vintages, listed below. We selected these vintages based on average aggregated critics’ scores for the Dom Pérignon label, as this is the most valuable and collectible. Moreover, Dom Pérignon is only made when the weather conditions are especially favorable.

• 1990 (94 points): Very fragrant, with notes of jasmine and ginger. These wines also have warm baked apple and spice flavors. It’s a bold, assertive year.
• 1992 (90 points): Great minerality. The wine is very acidic, crisp, and fresh. It also has some biscuity, yeasty notes.
• 1993 (91 points): Creamy and biscuity. This year produced wines that are softer and more nuanced in flavor than usual.
• 1995 (93 points): Intense and round. These wines are well-balanced and have excellent aging potential.
• 1996 (94 points): Elegant, pure, and complex. Floral and citrus notes dominate. It isn’t as concentrated as many other vintages on this list.
• 1998 (93 points): Finessed and complex. Its high acidity means that it has great aging potential.
• 1999 (92 points): Fresh and citrusy, but fairly low in acidity. It was tight in its youth but it’s beginning to open up as it ages.
• 2000 (92 points): Very mature and rich already. It has a lot of toasted and smoky flavors.
• 2002 (94 points): Very floral, layered, and intense. Tropical fruit notes lend this vintage some sweetness. 2003 (92 points): Powerful and fruit-driven. This is bolder than most Moët & Chandon wines and has great aging potential.
• 2004 (95 points): Aromatic, bold, and layered. There are some subtle flavors in this vintage that are only just beginning to appear with age.
• 2005 (93 points): Full-bodied and very rich, with creamy, toasted notes. It has an exceptionally long finish.
• 2006 (95 points): Dense and vibrant, with great minerality. Critics don’t expect it to age as long as other Dom Pérignon vintages, but it is drinking beautifully now.
• 2008 (97 points): Powerful and concentrated. This might prove to be the best vintage of the decade.
• 2009 (92 points): Fresh, fruit-forward, and vibrant. It still needs time to mature.

These tasting notes generally apply to P2 and P3 labels as well. However, these wines will usually have stronger toasted and smoky flavors, in addition to the flavors and qualities listed above. P2 and P3 wines are more complex and powerful overall, so if you prefer a rich, intense Champagne, seek out P2 and P3 labels made in these top years.

Which Moët & Chandon Tasting Notes Should You Trust?

While tasting notes are always subjective and will vary from person to person, amateur reviews are less reliable than others because these reviewers may not have enough experience with wine to characterize and score it accurately. Seasoned critics often have a larger vocabulary of wine terms than amateur enthusiasts and can identify more subtle differences in quality between two labels or vintages.

Some online retailers collect tasting notes in one place to make it easier for their customers to see what professional critics and amateur enthusiasts think about specific bottles.

The most trustworthy tasting notes are written by professional critics for publications such as:

• Wine Spectator
• Wine Enthusiast
• The Wine Advocate
• Food & Wine
• Decanter
• Wine & Spirits
• The SOMM Journal
• The Drinks Business

There are many other publications not included here that are also worth your consideration. Seek out critics who have experience writing about wine for publications like those above or who have professional wine certifications like Master of Wine or sommelier.

Amateur reviewers, particularly long-time wine collectors or enthusiasts, can still write quality Moët & Chandon tasting notes. Before you rely on these reviews for buying advice, though, make sure that the amateur reviewer you’re reading has preferences that are similar to your own. Tasting notes by a reviewer with a similar palate are always more helpful than those written by someone with completely different tastes.

Some online retailers collect tasting notes in one place to make it easier for their customers to see what professional critics and amateur enthusiasts think about specific bottles. For example, Vinfolio offers both professional and collector reviews, when available, on each wine listing, making it easy to see what people think about the wine. You can also upload your own tasting notes to the Vincellar cellar management system. Using online resources like these makes it easy to find helpful tasting notes that will guide you to just the right Moët & Chandon wines for your collection.

Whether you are starting your high-end wine collection or adding to an established portfolio, Vinfolio is your partner in buying, selling, and professional storage. Contact us today to get access to the world’s finest wine.