After days of blind-tasting hundreds of champagnes, these are the final results for Best Champagnes for 2018

 

 100 Best Champagnes for 2018 – Dom Pérignon is the Winner

After winning a number of pole positions in previous years, Dom Pérignon finally won the jackpot – The 2018 winner is Dom Pérignon Rosé 2006. The aim of this annual ranking is to taste the vast offering on the international markets in order to select the champagnes that are showing best this very moment. The most important criterion is the quality of the wine and its accessibility today.

FINE Champagne magazine, the only international publication devoted to champagne and tastingbook.com, the world’s largest wine information source, announce their list of the ‘100 Best Champagnes for 2018’.

“After days of blind-tasting hundreds of champagnes, the final results were tabulated. Any champagne making it into the Top 100 in the rigorous tasting by our editorial board and guest specialists can warmly be recommended. Still, there can only be one winner. This year our choice is Dom Pérignon Rosé 2006,” explained FINE Champagne magazine editors.

Having started life as Moët & Chandon’s prestige cuvée, today Dom Pérignon enjoys an independent position as an icon of champagne.

The first vintage of Dom Pérignon Rosé, 1959, was launched in 1971. Characterised by aromas and structure, Pinot Noir is truly Burgundian in character. This trait is more pronounced in the latest vintages, as cellar master Richard Geoffroy dares to be increasingly adventurous with it. The 26th Dom Pérignon Rosé to be released and record- breaking 5th in a row, the 2006 Dom Pérignon Rosé is an act of creation in a hot and dry year.

“Technically my most challenging Vintage was 2006. I keep referring to risk at Dom Pérignon, to step outside one’s comfort zone: to me it’s the essence – an element of magic comes out of it.” – Richard Geoffroy. Stunningly concentrated and packed with succulent fruitiness, the wine already now shows a beautiful complexity of gunpowder, licorice and oriental spices complementing the plush yet firm Pinot fruit.

 

Top 10 champagnes for 2018:

1 Dom Pérignon Rosé 2006;
2 Piper-Heidsieck Rare 2002;
3 Dom Ruinart Rosé 2004;
4 Dom Pérignon 2008;
4 Louis Roederer Cristal 2009;
4 Deutz Cuvée William Deutz 2006 ;
7 Pol Roger Rosé 2008;
7 Krug Grande Cuvée NV (162nd Edition);
9 Charles Heidsieck Vintage Rosé 2006;
10 Charles Heidsieck Blanc des Millénaires 2004.

Curious about the previous winners:

2017 Moët & Chandon MCIII NV
2016 Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle NV;
2015 Ruinart Dom Ruinart Rosé 2002
2014 Louis Roederer Cristal Rosé 2002;
2013 Charles Heidsieck Vintage 2000;
2012 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2000;
2011 Piper-Heidsieck Rare 2002;
2010 Armand de Brignac Brut Gold NV.