Welcome--and an assemblage question

First, chapeau for the great–and consistent–champagne produced under your watch. How can you achieve such consistency with the large volume of champagne produced–there is no large assemblage of juice in a giant vat, is there? How do you assure that bottle 1 tastes the same as bottle 2,000,000?
alan

I’ll add on to Alan’s question. What was the assemblage of the very first Dom Perignon? Is it possible to know? And do any bottles exist from that time frame?

Alan,

thanks for the kind words. I have two major goals when it comes to excellence in winemaking: quality and consistency, both being equally important. We are very committed to achieving total consistency across the whole process of blending in one vintage. The solution is purely technical, with the emphasis on rigor and precision. We are actually using quite large vats for this process, but nowadays considering the state of the art technology, I would say the size of vats is rather irrelevant.

Benjamin,

a few bottles from that era still exist. The aim of the assemblage has always been to find the perfect balance between Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, on the scheme of a tension. It was already the case for the first commercial vintage (1921) and is still the case for the latest (2002). This is truly the legacy of Dom Pérignon.

Best regards,
Richard