Why Dom Pérignon is “The Shit”
On Wine & the Expression of Your Fullest Personality Obi Okorougo
In the late 17th century, an ambitious monk named Dom Pérignon said:
“I want to make the best wine in the world.”
So he made something good, put it in a dark cellar, and then came back to check on it seven years later. It was the shit.
Now Möet reproduces a sparkling wine in the same fashion, charges $300 a bottle, and slaps the monk’s name on it for good measure. If you’ve ever had any of it, then you know the stuff is pretty damn good.
There is something to the idea of taking an item that’s already decent and letting it marinate for a few years to mature. The result is almost always magnificent.
The champagne chefs of Epernay insist that the wine isn’t worth drinking until it’s allowed to mature in the champagne cellars and reach its ‘fullest personality.’
In our world of instant gratification, how many of us allow ourselves the time to mature and reach our fullest potential? It seems like we’ve just been trained to expect things to happen instantly, without realizing that the most valuable things take the most time to perfect.
For example:
• Bösendorfer makes a 9-foot grand piano that takes seven years to build and sells at $120,000. (Or $750,000 if you’re bourgeois like that.)
• An Aston Martin is built from the ground up by hand. The architect signs the engine after it’s built. You can buy one for $150,000.
• We praise athletes for their accomplishments on the pitch and on the courts. Most of them have been at it since childhood. The highest paid amongst them make upwards of $30 million per season. Tiger Woods? Yea, he made $100 million last year.
This is not to discourage the beginner, or to insist that it’ll be a long time before you become good at anything. With much passion and some focused hours at your craft, you’ll be awesome much sooner than you become recognized as a genius. (And we love “awesome” too.) It’s just that greatness takes time. You need to marinate before you’re ready to be served. But the world is hungry, and when you’re ready, we’ll be waiting with forks up and bibs tight.
A Master Chef Gives His Official Opinion on Dom Pérignon:
“This wine is full of Life, with a fresh nose that dances through a spiral of aromas…its earthy complexity rises to the surface, underscored by a vibrant warmth…the sensation of intensity develops and melts into a rounded heart…this sensation, almost unsettling, is even more pronounced in the finish…” * Richard Geoffroy, Dom Pérignon Champagne Chef *
Malcolm Gladwell Talks About Success. (This has been making its way around the web, so let me do my part to push it forward. It’s good shit. ☺)
Tagged: life, Tagged: obi okorougo, Tagged: wine, Tagged: dom perignon, Tagged: work, Tagged: greatness
Comments
Yeah! Fine tuning one’s craft has been my M.O. lately.
My favorite part in the interview was when Malcolm mentioned that the Beatles went to “miserable” Hamburg to play 8-hour sets everyday for months on end. That was inspiring. Like they left their friends in Britain and worked on their craft (and their passion!) for months at a time for the sake of getting better and the Love of it all of course.
That made me give thought to my experiences and truthfully made me feel really good about them. It made me want to work harder. It made me put my head down and write this post. 
Great movie. I’m buying the book tomorrow. Thanks!
Let me know how the book is Dusty! I’ve been wanting to read it but don’t have access to it here.
I will. I just picked it up ah hour ago. I am very excited to start it. Thanks for the inspiration.
Awesome post...I am digging the emphasis on fine-tuning one’s craft through concerted effort. I love how wine is described and the adjectives that are used by wine aficionados. It sounds so serious and heavy. I love wine tasting for this reason: I always am impressed by the vocabulary used by these experts and wine lovers. The video is a great addition.