Dom Pérignon Champagne Price: How Much Is a Bottle?

alvarez / Getty Images
alvarez / Getty Images

A flashy symbol of luxury adored by pop stars and vintage wine collectors alike, a bottle of Dom Pérignon says “luxe” like nothing else. Dom Pérignon is a manufacturer of true champagne, having been produced in the Champagne region of France for more than 100 years.

Though the brand is named after a famous monk, Dom Pérignon’s operation is far from a small monastery. Bottles of Dom Pérignon are considered to be some of the highest quality examples of champagne in the world thanks to the company’s intensive winemaking process.

This careful production process is part of why Dom Pérignon maintains such a luxury status — and such a high price tag. But why does this particular brand command such high prices?

How Much Is a Bottle of Dom Pérignon?

The retail price of a bottle of Dom Pérignon 2012 Vintage is around $250. However, the specific price of each bottle will vary, depending on where you buy it and the year of the vintage. As a general rule, you can expect to pay between $250 and $1,000 for the average bottle of Dom Pérignon vintage champagne.

The 2012 Vintage is one of Dom Pérignon’s most accessible bottles and is even served in first class on some major airlines. Dom Pérignon Vintage is known for its bright, crisp and slightly acidic taste, which provides a unique richness not found in competing champagnes. Its accents include almonds, ginger and tobacco.

How Much Is Dom Pérignon Rosé?

Pricing for Dom Pérignon’s line of rosé varies greatly from the brand’s standard vintage offerings. Bottles of Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage start at about $450 a bottle and increase in price depending on the vintage. Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage was most recently released in 2008.

The 2008 vintage is noted for its acidic foundation, resembling a pinot noir — the company attributes this unique flavor profile to the weather that marked September of 2008, when the grapes were grown. The 2008 Rosé Vintage is also notable for its top notes of peonies and pepper, which the company describes as “effervescent.”

How Much Is a Bottle of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1998 Worth?

A bottle of Dom Pérignon 1998 Vintage is worth about $300 to $350. It is widely available at wine specialty stores and online.

Why Is Dom Pérignon So Expensive?

A number of factors make Dom Pérignon more expensive than your average champagne, most of which have to do with the company’s small-batch production. The careful process of making the wine and limited releases play a large role.

A Distinctive Production Process

Bottles of Dom Pérignon are only produced in years when the weather will be ideal for grape production. The most expensive bottles come from the years when the Champagne region receives the best weather for growing the perfect grapes.

A season with plenty of sun and light, warm rain make the grapes grow well with the ideal amount of sugar content for winemaking. Grapes from the same harvest year are always used together under each year’s named release. This lends every vintage its own unique flavor profile. All blends of Dom Pérignon are produced using pinot noir and chardonnay grapes.

After the grapes have been grown and harvested, the winemaking process can begin. Bottles of Dom Pérignon are aged for a minimum of seven years before they are considered for release. This is four years longer than the Comité Champagne’s requirement for a champagne to refer to itself as “vintage.”

Some bottles of Dom Pérignon are aged for as long as 25 years. During this time, the wine sits on dead yeast cells, enhancing its flavor before bottling occurs. This extended production process and timeline gives Dom Pérignon its expensive status.

An Exclusive Market

Exclusivity also plays a role in pricing, with smaller batches fetching a higher value. The most expensive mark made by Dom Pérignon at auction was in 2008, when a bidder paid $84,700 for a lot of two bottles of the legendary Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1959.

This bottle in particular is worth so much because only 306 bottles were ever produced, and the wine, which was produced for a private event, was never sold before 2008. The only bottles in existence are held in private collections.

Luxury Brand Status

Dom Pérignon is considered a luxury item. Its status is partly thanks to its production and market, but it also comes by association. It is owned by the Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) empire, a well-known producer of high-end fashion, perfume and beverage brands. Some other major names in luxury found under the LVMH house include Rimowa, Givenchy and Stella by Stella McCarthy.

Final Take

Dom Pérignon is frequently featured on both lists of investment wines and restaurant menus alike. Investors who are considering adding wine to their portfolio for diversification may assume that Dom Pérignon is a good investment wine because of the Dom Pérignon price tag.

Working with an investing app like Vinovest can help investors learn more about how wines may perform in the long term and invest with less initial research. However, investors should be sure that alternative assets like wine don’t make up too large a percentage of their portfolio. Alternative assets are often more volatile than mutual funds and ETFs, which means that they can lead to larger losses in a shorter period of time.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Dom Pérignon Champagne Price: How Much Is a Bottle?

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