1996 Dom Perignon ****

You can never have enough Champagne, and New Year's Eve is the opportunity to open your best bottle of the bubbly lying around, so in light of our house arrest we opened a bottle of Dom Perignon 1996 **** the very same I purchased from a duty free shop in Puerto Rico some years ago. As did the 1999 **** the predominant note on the 1996 Dom Perignon was chardonnay, chardonnay, chardonnay. A pale hay color with a light foam and very good effervescence, this 1996 displayed lime and salt stone notes with honeyed citrus and very mild dry herbs.

After thinking about these wines, it occurs to me that while I like to say that I have a love-hate relationship with Dom Perignon, the truth is that I really have a guilty-love relationship with it. I don't want to like it as much as I do, and I feel guilty about enjoying it as much as I do, but I wished I drank more of it, and besides for a 1990 tasted many years ago (which may not have been stored properly, in retrospect) I have always loved these wines.