1999 Dom Perignon Brut 750ml

The 1999 Dom Pérignon reflects a warm, generous growing season that produced a large, ripe crop despite rain near the season's end. The house's chef de cave compared its sunny, low-acid profile to 1976 — an exotic, yellow-fruited style that was easy to love young and prompted early doubts about longevity that the wine has since put to rest. Warm years test a blender's restraint, and the interest of the 1999 lies in how the house kept opulence from tipping into excess.

That the year was bottled at all speaks to the declared-vintage discipline at the heart of Dom Pérignon: three consecutive seasons — 1998, 1999 and 2000 — each earned a declaration on its own terms, a rarity in the house's history. The 1999 is the expressive middle panel of that triptych, the warmest and most open-handed of the three.

With age it has shed its baby fat and grown into a creamy, mouth-filling Champagne, its mature Chardonnay lending an almost oily viscosity balanced by gentle savor. The gold is deepening and the mousse has settled into softness; as with all Champagne past twenty-five years, the bottle's storage life will color the experience. What once read as softness now reads as texture, the acidity modest but sufficient, the length considerable.

Drink it on the day the cork comes out, ideally over a leisurely meal. Its breadth welcomes richer cooking — roast chicken with morels, lobster with butter, triple-cream cheeses — and a slightly warmer pour in a wide glass lets the exotic fruit speak. Among the mature years in this vertical it is arguably the most immediately giving.

• Size: 750ml
• ABV: ABV varies
• Vintage: 1999
• Origin: Champagne, France
• Winery: Dom Pérignon (Moët & Chandon), Épernay
• Grape/Blend: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
• Lees Aging: Roughly seven years on the lees before first release
• Tasting Notes: Exotic yellow fruit, cream, gentle savor; soft settled mousse
• Drink Window: Drink now; mature, holds in fine cellars