Many people wonder why they cannot specify the year when they ask for Champagne: for instance, why can you not get a bottle of 94 Dom Perignon? The reason is simple: it was a lousy year in Champagne. The bubbly houses only declare vintage years when their northern clime is blessed with ample sunshine and good weather. That does not happen often. Hence vintage years are only declared about three times a decade.
What is on sale now, through the importer Riche Monde (fax: 2976-1004) and good wine outlets, is the 1992 vintage.
That was a marvellous year in Champagne: April was cool and misty, with no late sudden frosts; the summer was long and hot. August hailstorms missed the vines and the harvest was early.
The fruit was magnificent, and Dom Perignon celebrated the crop by declaring a vintage.
Grab it: this will be the last Dom Perignon vintage of the century.
The monk who invented Champagne was born 360 years ago, but the idea of making a special cuvee vintage only goes back to 1935, when 300 bottles were made of the wine which had been made in 1926.