We are in Belgrade. Sharing a bottle of Dom Pérignon 2004 P2 with Francois and Marija, owners of Delice. Chef Guillaume Iskandar made us a humble truffle pie. A new video series where I drink with people.
Checkout my book: Drinking Dom Pérignon 1921 to 2013 www.DrinkingDomPerignon.com
Edward Kaukoranta - Independent Writer, an expert on Champagne As a kid, the only Champagne I got to see was in the movies, I became fascinated by how James Bond drank those, oh so fine bubbles. In 2001, when I was 16 years old, I tasted my first Champagne. After turning 18, in November 2003, I started drinking Champagne wherever and whenever it was possible. Always seeking new labels to try, and new tastes to discover. In 2004, I bought my first bottle of Dom Pérignon, the vintage 1995. Thereafter, I have followed the development of each new vintage of Dom Pérignon. In autumn 2008, I tasted Dom Pérignon 1992 Œnothèque, the Champagne that changed my life, it was the most elegant, most intense wine I’d ever had. How was it even possible that wine could make me feel like that? The very next day, I began to hunt for mature vintages of Champagne.
In Spring 2013, quit my day job and moved to Reims, Champagne. That led me to find Artisan Champagnes. The two and a half years there widened my view of Champagne, allowing me to understand the terroir I walked on, the philosophy of the people who cultivate their vineyards and why and how they make their cuvées. In April 2018, sharing a bottle of 1985 Dom Pérignon with Richard Geoffroy the Chef-de-Cave of Dom Pérignon (1990 - 2018), was a dream come true and I got so many answers to my questions from our conversations.
In Autumn 2019, my friend happened to mention that he would love to read a book about my Dom Pérignon experiences. Four years later in November 2023, at the age of 38, this book is my journey; A sacred mission to drink all the vintages of Dom Pérignon ever made. I have tasted each vintage within the book at least once and some vintages as many as over 50 times since 2005 with the current exception being the 1953 and the 1921. The bottles I had collected and cherished for years have now been photographed within this book.
We're in Serbia in Dedinje and we're gonna go to Talis. We're gonna see my friend Francois
and Marian, they are the owners of the place. Francois liked the Jacques Cousteau of wine,
investigating different places, unknown territories. Here is Francois.
One for me.
And we're gonna go here.
Yeah we can go for it. Let's go for it.
We need kisela voda.
Okay. Good. So what do you open, Eddie?
Here we go. Let's taste. What do you think?
Yeah, yeah, it's immediately.
Yeah, these are the goosebumps.
And if you, to explain why it's like that, it's just aged a bit longer under natural
coke with the yeast. So it's like, don't bring you on the second life. The higher level. Yeah.
And this one, it will be better after one year, because it was launched one year ago, but it's
you will already capture the emotion what it is. 2004. Yeah. And that's the youngest vintage now.
But it's, we should speak on camera, but I don't have a word.
And the idea is also that we drink one third of the bottle now. Yeah. And then we left for
one hour. And then when the food comes, we finish the bottle because that's the difficult part.
That's the very difficult part. On Tangar we have a Claudemus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll find
solution for that. Yeah. And if you, if you think when people say, don't bring on la la la,
it's not good, it's commercial. No, please make a better wine than this.
This is something you can go to a shop and buy. Yeah. And it's constant new vintages.
Yeah. Depending on vintage. This is a normal vintage, a classic. If it's a top vintage,
it's a level higher. Yeah. Or two depends on. Yeah. I think a little bit more.
Yeah. I think it's the moment when we reached the third, the third of the bottle.
Plenitude de. Fantastic. Yeah. I think this will be the best video of P2EVER,
people are silent and just drinking. Enjoy the silence. I had so many things to say,
but I forgot everything. Next video. But there's one thing you cannot drink this
every day. No, I try to maximum every three months maximum because there is after this,
there is nothing. This is the point. I mean, then you get spoiled and you cannot enjoy
in anything else. Yeah. I mean, you end there and that's drinking. Yeah. Yeah. Go back to,
to never, never beer. Never, never beer. Basic dudes. Exactly. But it was fun. We're talking
with Guillaume about like, what will he cook for the, the newest young vintage Dom Prignan.
He was, you don't cook. Yeah. It was like, exactly. It's, it's, it's a good special wine,
but it doesn't have the character for this. It's going to be interesting to see what we,
what has been made. Yeah. But the problem is that, like I said, it's, it's, it's something that,
how many bottles of the produce of P2EVER? Of course, everything of Dom Prignan is a secret,
but educated guess would be in around 80,000, a hundred thousand educated guess. I can be
wrong. Probably am. And I mean, now, because the thing is when, when they actually started the
concept, it, the P2 replaced Enotech in 2014 and that it was launched with 98 vintage.
And the decision to put this, to make the P2 was made in 2005 in spring, when they
decided to clear the vintage. They put the P1, the regular one in portal. It aged with the capsule,
like normal. And this one is with the natural cork. So you cannot make more. Yeah. It's,
it's the decision is done then. I think today they will do more and more. Yeah. Put more because
when Chef Roy decided to make the former Chef de Cave, we decided to make this. He needs to
tell to Arnaud that, okay. And he called the bean bag counters that, okay, now instead of
getting money, we will put a lot on the side and the first time he can release it, it's going to
be in a long, long, long time. And then do trust me. Yeah. And I don't know if it's good, but trust
me, trust me. And I remember when, yeah. And I remember when it, when they started, nobody understood
P2. It was a different label. It was before Innotech and they had to sell it for a lower price.
It was like 250 euros, five, six years ago. And now it's around 500 in a shop price. Yeah. Shop
price. Yeah. And restaurants depend. It can be anywhere from around, let's say 800 to 1,200,
some, some lower, some, but in that range. And for me to find a wine price quality for 500 euros
to beat the P2, it's currently impossible. Yeah. It's, it's, it's for that. It is a value
because there's a lot of things where you don't have, but it's, it's something that,
and there's no competition. If you start now, you will have, it's 20 years old. You need to,
this will be definitely a video that we edit a lot. It cannot be one go.
I had a beautiful idea, but the wine cannot work. Yeah. But it's, it's,
let's open the Clos de Mouche. Sure. Where did you put it? It's in the first fridge. Yes.
And here is the truffle pie. Everything is local from Serbia. It's cheese from South Serbia and
really simple is adaptation. We have a local product, truffle, onion, and the dough is what
we use for the bourak usually and some spring salad on the side. Really simple,
onion, truffle, cheese, three flavors, nothing else to don't complicate. The wine is the main
actor. Enjoy. It's beautiful. Thank you very much, Chef. Voila. Let's try. Let's try it.
I will pour us a little bit of P2. You know, some days life is good. Yeah. I mean,
some days it's better. We cannot complain. Yeah. Let me add a little bit of truffle sauce.
So we use the same sauce for the two wines because it's based on the same grapes, Pinot.
So there is one connecting sauce, but different. But it's delicious. I hope. It must be. It's for
the internet. It's delicious. Always. The pie is singing, you know. When you cut it,
it's already talking to you. Yeah. You know, in food you have the smell, you have the eye,
and at one point you have even the nose, the noise. Usually in the kitchen we have a joke,
we stop the service when something is crispy because we want to get attention.
To have the crispiness is also emotional, the texture.
Not bad. Not bad. Did you put some of the wild garlic? Yes, on the salad. For now,
I don't want to be too aggressive on that. That's why I put it on the side, but it has to be really
smooth, varying only on fat. Piece of art. Yes. I mean, first of all... I mean, it's a local
project. The point is not to bring the langoustine with yuzu and all those things that we saw a
million times. It's to be interesting, bring something else, local projects, and seasonality,
of course. It's absolutely fantastic. The song of the crust is sick. Yeah.
This is insane.
I have a kind of a slow energy today, Eddie, I'm sorry.
It's perfect.
Next time we do it with much more basic things.
