Dom Perignon's vintage years

At holiday time, Richard Geoffroy, the chef de cave at Dom Perignon, is of the firm opinion that Champagne - the bubbly drink associated with special occasions - is a more flexible beverage than one might think.

Yes, it pairs jubilantly with caviar and oysters, but it also complements other menus, especially Indian and Asian flavors widely enjoyed in the Bay Area year-round. Who knew?

To showcase several new releases in top form - Dom Perignon 2002 ($150), Dom Perignon Rosé 2000 ($350) and Dom Perignon Oenothèque 1996 ($350) - Geoffroy hosted several Bay Area society dinners earlier this year, pairing the wines with courses such as crab soup with Thai herbs; Chinese-style sea bass, snow peas and water chestnuts; red rice and salmon roe; and even mango and kulfi, an Indian ice cream.

The Champagne house's traveling tutor spends harvest time, naturally, in Epernay, where the Dom headquarters at parent company Moet & Chandon is located and was founded by Jean-Rémy Moët in 1743 (the headquarters building was erected in 1793). In the vineyards, seasoned workers pick grapes by hand (not machine), and only those deemed worthy of harvest are clipped and used to make the sparkling wine that the kings of France called "stars in a bottle."

Every bottle is aged a minimum of seven years in 18 miles of dimly lit underground cellars. Some of the 30,000 annual visitors might sip privately in tasting rooms, while only 400 others each year, by private invitation of Champagne house officials, are treated to a trip up to the peaceful Abbey in Hautvilliers, founded in 650 and destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries because of wars. Dom Perignon was appointed to head the abbey in 1668, and his remains were buried inside.

Not everyone can make it to Epernay for a cellar tour, so to make tastings easier on those of us stateside, Geoffroy's Bay Area visit earlier this year included a private dinner at the Napa Reserve and the home of Tatiana and Serge Sorokko, as well as tastings at the St. Regis Hotel, where he talked about the natural dramas that can affect winemaking. Poor weather in 2002 threatened the vintage, but late rains helped the grapes bounce back.

The result? "It has to be ranked among the top vintages in sheer ripeness of fruit - the characteristic is not roundness, but energy," Geoffroy said. "It's reminiscent of the 1982, the '96 and the '90, which are the top of the past 40 years. It's rich and tart at once."

The Oenothèque 1996, part of a vintage reserved in Dom's wine library so winemakers can see how its flavor, structure and style age over time, was described with words such as "plum, warm pastry, butterscotch," and then "somber characters of toast and iodine," as well as "biscuit, nuts, wood spice, cake and bruised apple."

The 2000 rosé, a salmon-colored wine (and no mere "pink Champagne," a description that borders on insult, in Geoffroy's book), has flavors of "black cherry that evolves into smoke" with hints of "toasted bread."

"Rosé allows you to venture to new territories," he said, "to something more provocative."

Well, he is looking at the world through rosé-colored glasses.

To request a tour of Dom Perignon, e-mail visites@moet.fr. The Champagne house is closed during the month of January and on holidays.

This article appeared on page S - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle