The 2003 Dom Pérignon P2 is rich and demonstrative, wafting from the glass with aromas of stone fruits, honeycomb and buttered toast that leave more space for the wine's generous fruit tones than the more overtly yeasty original disgorgement. Full-bodied, broad and textural, it remains very youthful despite its below-average acidity, with notable precision to its ripe fruit tones and chalky structuring extract that provides, to some extent, a compensating sensation of freshness; it's actually evolving more slowly than its 2002 counterpart. Given the wine's richness, it works best with food. Chaperon relates that then-Chef de Caves Richard Geoffroy rejected any musts with a pH exceeding 3.3, the only time this metric has been used as a basis for selection for Dom Pérignon, and that the juice was allowed to oxidize before vinification. I'm looking forward to seeing the 2003 in its P3 incarnation, as I suspect that the wine will really come into its own when it develops more tertiary notes.
Given the imminent release of the 2012 Dom Pérignon, in the interests of timeliness I'm publishing my review a few weeks in advance of my large mid-September Champagne report surveying recent and forthcoming releases from the region. Readers looking for more background on the past and present of this prestige cuvée are referred to my feature article in the April 2020 Week 2 issue of The Wine Advocate.