The short answer
Dom Perignon 1949 is one of the declared vintages in the house record, from a harvest that followed the rebuilding of the Champagne vineyard after the second world war. Bottles reaching the open market are scarce and are almost always sold singly rather than by the case. Our own trade record holds two dated observations for the vintage: a median of 452 pounds in August 2016 and 1,019 pounds in December 2020, a doubling across a little over four years on very thin volume. Public auction aggregation records two further lots, averaging 1,449 dollars and ranging from 1,230 to 1,667 dollars. Retail guide pricing sits between 800 and 1,500 pounds a bottle. The two drinker notes we hold both score it 94, and both describe a wine fully into tertiary maturity: pale golden, faintly mousseux still, with spice, dried citrus and a mineral edge.
What dom perignon 1949 is
The 1949 is a declared vintage, listed among the house releases from the first declaration of 1921 onwards. It sits in the tight post-war run of declarations alongside 1947 and 1952, a period when production volumes were far below anything the house makes now, and when far fewer bottles were laid down for long keeping in the first place.
That scarcity is the single most important fact about the wine commercially. A vintage that trades a handful of times a decade has no reliable market price, only a series of individual results, and any figure quoted without a date attached to it should be treated as decoration rather than evidence.
What the trade record actually shows
We hold two dated trade observations. The first is a median of 452 pounds in August 2016, from a single observation. The second is 1,019 pounds in December 2020, again from a single observation. Two points four years apart do not make a trend, and it would be dishonest to present them as one, but they do establish an order of magnitude.
Recorded auction results add two more lots, at an average of 1,449 dollars with a spread from 1,230 to 1,667 dollars. Independent retail guidance puts the vintage between 800 and 1,500 pounds. Those three ranges broadly agree, which is about as much confidence as a wine of this rarity allows.
How it tastes now
Both drinker notes in our record score the wine 94. The earlier of the two describes a pale golden colour with the mousse still present, and reads the wine as complex and elegant, with ocean air, apricot, citrus and a distinct mineral streak. The later note finds cinnamon, clove and baking spice on the nose, then allspice and light caramel on the palate, with clear oxidative character and a finish that had begun to dry out.
Read together those notes describe exactly what a well-kept bottle of this age should be: still alive, still faintly sparkling, but firmly tertiary and past the point where anyone should expect fruit. The gap between the two notes also shows how much individual bottle condition decides the outcome at this age.
Buying a bottle this old
Provenance decides more of the value than the vintage does. Ask when the bottle was last moved, how it has been stored, and what the fill level is. A low shoulder on a wine of this age is not automatically fatal, but it changes what you should pay, and any seller who cannot answer those questions is asking you to price a risk blind.
Treat a bottle of 1949 as an archival tasting piece rather than something to lay down further. It has no upside left in the cellar. Stand it upright for a day before opening so the sediment settles, and open it gently: what carbonation remains is delicate and easily lost.
Common questions
Is 1949 a declared Dom Perignon vintage?
Yes. The 1949 appears in the published list of declared vintages, in the post-war run alongside 1947 and 1952.
What does a bottle of Dom Perignon 1949 cost?
Our two dated trade observations are 452 pounds in August 2016 and 1,019 pounds in December 2020. Recorded auction lots average 1,449 dollars, ranging from 1,230 to 1,667 dollars, and independent retail guidance sits between 800 and 1,500 pounds.
Is the 1949 still drinkable?
Both drinker notes we hold score it 94 and describe a wine that is still alive and faintly sparkling, but fully tertiary. Condition varies enormously bottle to bottle at this age.
Should I cellar a bottle of 1949 for longer?
No. A wine of this age has no structural upside left. Treat it as an archival bottle to open rather than to keep.
Sources
- The Finest Bubble on the Dom Perignon declared vintages, checked 2026-08-29
- Recorded auction results for the 1949 bottling, checked 2026-08-29
- Glass of Bubbly guide to Dom Perignon vintage price values, checked 2026-08-29
Last updated 2026-08-29. Drafted with claude-opus-5, sources verified by live fetch on 2026-08-29 against this site’s own price and critic data, then checked against the sources above. We do not put a human byline on copy a human did not write.