1990 Dom Pérignon P3

While the original disgorgement of this wine is beginning to get a little long in the tooth in regular formats from all but the coolest cellar, the 1990 Dom Pérignon P3 is showing superbly, bursting from the glass with a thrilling bouquet of ripe yellow fruits, dried white flowers, honeycomb, brioche and and spruce smoke. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, satiny textured and deep at the core, with terrific concentration, ripe acids and structuring dry extract, concluding with a long, beautifully defined finish. The 1990 is clearly a vintage that has been favored by the combination of additional time on the lees and lower dosage, and in its P3 incarnation, it can go head to head with the 1985, even if the latter vintage is aging more gracefully from the original release. Given that the 1990 P3 is an expressive, dramatic wine, there seems little reason to wait, though it ought to perform at this level for the better part of a decade.