Dom Pérignon, for those who know how to wait

I keep a short list of bottles I never open on a normal night. Dom Pérignon is always on it, and this autumn it arrived dressed by Damien Hirst.

The Dom Pérignon Limited Edition by Damien Hirst is now in Portugal, at the Club del Gourmet of El Corte Inglés. There are two wines. A Vintage 2018 in a deep blue, and a Rosé Vintage 2010 in a warm pink. Hirst took the famous Dom Pérignon shield and reworked it through his "Kaleidoscope" series, the butterfly works he has been making for years.

Art on a champagne bottle is not new

Dom Pérignon has a long habit of inviting artists in. Karl Lagerfeld worked with the house from 2005. Later came Lenny Kravitz, then Lady Gaga. Each time, the bottle becomes a small object of its period.

What makes Hirst interesting is that his butterfly works are about beauty and time, about something fragile kept forever. That is not a bad description of a vintage champagne.

A champagne that is only ever a vintage

Most champagne houses build their reputation on a non-vintage blend that tastes the same every year. Dom Pérignon does the opposite. It only makes vintage champagne. If the year is not good enough, there is no Dom Pérignon from that year at all.

Between 1921 and 2012, the house declared only 44 white vintages. Every one of them rests in the cellars for at least eight years before release. Some are then held back for much longer and released again as Plénitudes. P2 is the second life of a vintage, after many more years on the lees. P3 is the third and rarest.

The man who makes those calls today is the Chef de Cave, Vincent Chaperon. His job is less about making wine than about deciding when a wine is ready to speak.

The monk behind the name

The name comes from Dom Pierre Pérignon, a Benedictine monk who was cellar master of the Abbey of Hautvillers, near Épernay, in the seventeenth century. Popular legend says he invented champagne and called out to his brothers that he was drinking stars.

Historians are less romantic. The records show a brilliant cellar master who worked on blending and quality, not the inventor of the bubbles. I find the true story better. A man who spent his life improving something, slowly, is exactly the right patron for a house that waits eight years before saying anything.

Curious facts

• Dom Pérignon has no non-vintage wine. No year, no bottle.
• The 2026 edition pairs a white from 2018 with a rosé from 2010. Eight years separate the two wines in the same box.
• In October 2025, Dom Pérignon held its first official presentation in Portugal inside the Reservatório da Mãe d'Água das Amoreiras, the great stone reservoir designed by Carlos Mardel in 1746. Forty guests dined with chef Sergi Arola, with Dom Pérignon 2013, P2 2006 and Rosé 2009 on the table.
• The "drinking stars" line is almost certainly a later invention. It still sells beautifully.

Where to find it in Portugal

The Hirst edition is sold at El Corte Inglés, in the Club del Gourmet. I would start at the Lisbon store on Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar and call ahead, because limited editions do not stay on the shelf for long. If you want the full experience, ask for the gift box. With an artist edition, the box is part of the work.

My take

I am not someone who buys a bottle for the label. But I collect art and I drink wine, and when the two meet honestly I pay attention.

For me the real story here is not Hirst. It is the 2018 and the 2010 sitting side by side, released only now. In a world where everything is delivered tomorrow, this is a house that still asks you to wait, and then asks you to wait a little longer.

My advice: buy two. Open one this Christmas. Put the other one away and forget about it for ten years. That is what Dom Pérignon would do.

For those who know how to wait, it is worth every year.