AN EXHIBITION TO SHARE THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF                 
DOM PERIGNON: “LES PRE-ASSEMBLAGES”


Illustrating the unique story behind the creation of each vintage
Each year, Vincent Chaperon, Chef de Cave at Dom Pérignon, gathers talents from different practices to accompany him and testify about the path leading to the creation of the Vintage. This creation begins with an emotion he feels in the vineyards. This emotion is then enhanced by a creative intuition, which unfolds amidst the surrounding nature and with the help of the talented members of the Dom Pérignon staff, over the months leading to the assemblage (blending in French) of the wines. Progressively, this intuition morphs into an intention, called “Pré-Assemblages”, planting the seeds of the creation to come.


The creative adventure of 2023
“Trace” was the name of the creative intention of 2023, and is also the name of the exhibition that bears testimony to it. Its aim is to describe the creative steps Vincent Chaperon went through during his yearlong quest for an imperceptible trace, and for the encounter with an elusive nature. The works on show document the year 2023 in the vines of Champagne. They include drawings and photographs, which both give a sense of the space and time in which the creative discourse of Vincent Chaperon unfolds, expressing its poetry.

These pictures, along with texts and craftworks aiming to chart and express the creative process of Vincent Chaperon in 2023, are part of a time capsule which will also be curated, at Palau Martorell. The exhibition ends with an iconic Arte Povera work, obtained by the use of the technique of rubbing, in perfect phase with the creative intention “Trace” which led to these Pré-Assemblages 2023.


The enduring contribution of a talent collective to the creation of Dom Pérignon
The drawings on show recount the life of the landscape of Champagne, marked by frequent weather changes and the movements of natural light throughout the course of the hours, days, weeks, months and seasons. Not unlike the creation of Dom Pérignon Vintages, the works express the emotions born from the episodes of nature’s evolution: in 2023, the weather was uneven and demanding.

The photographs tell another story: the yearlong work in the vineyard, the thousand and one gestures of the vinegrowing community, together with the evolutions of the vegetal matter, of the grape clusters, and the different states of the must in the vats. The landscape as well was captured, with its curves, hills and slopes, its lights and shadows, helping us understand the climate challenges seen from the point of view of the vinegrowing work.

Furthermore the exhibition includes texts which describe the many steps of the creative year, the impressions of Vincent Chaperon, and the concepts he used to read and interpret the message of nature.


Resonance of the Dom Pérignon’s central concept of touch
The third and final part of the exhibition is dedicated to the display of the artwork Il verde del bosco con ramo (1983), by Arte Povera artist Giuseppe Penone. Obtained by rubbing leaves and vegetal color on a canvas, and representing a forest landscape, the artwork aims to put into light the actual gesture of man on nature, by revealing the matter he touches. The piece is loaned for the occasion by the Museum of contemporary art of Rochechouart.

This artwork was inspirational for Vincent Chaperon insofar as it echoes his own ambition to let us see the message he felt nature intended to pass on to our senses during 2023. Among the five senses, the sense of touch is precisely the very one through which Dom Pérignon’s Chef de Cave wants his Vintages to be approached: “The essential trace of Dom Pérignon, its inner truth, is the way it touches the mouth: if this touch is missing, the taste simply couldn’t unfold over the space and time of the tasting, which mirror the space and time of the wine’s elaboration.” Vincent Chaperon conceives the touch as a way to reconnect the spirit to the body, and in a broader perspective, to reconnect humans with nature.