Shared Since 1829
The House of Bollinger
Champagne Bollinger was established in 1829 and remains independently owned and run. The shape of the family business still contains today and each of the Bollinger cuvees is a careful assembly of the very finest ingredients by the talented, passionate team, in accordance with the House’s unique Charter of Ethics and Quality, created by Christian Bizot in 1992.
Each member of the team dedicates their lives to the production of the select range of distinctive Bollinger Champagne. The philosophy of the house over the years has been to stay true to itself and its vines.
Bollinger dedicates year-round effort to working its 163 hectares of highest quality vineyard sites to ensure the very best, healthy grapes are harvested.
Exclusive ownership of vineyards enables Bollinger to supply the majority of their grapes themselves – a rare quality among Champagne houses. Throughout the winemaking process the utmost respect for the quality of the grapes is maintained.
Product Information
Bollinger Special Cuvée
Bollinger Special Cuvée is the reference for the Bollinger House style. It is the result of painstakingly blending three hundred different wines and ageing on the lees for at least three years to give a powerful, rich, distinctive Champagne.
Bollinger Special Cuvée is made primarily from reserve wines harvested from preceding years, some as much as 15 years old. The library of half a million reserve wines, kept in magnum in the Bollinger cellars and added each year to the blend, guarantees the consistency of Bollinger Special Cuvée.
At Bollinger, only the highest quality grapes from Grand & Premier Cru vineyards are used. The Pinot Noir variety makes up the majority of the blend, adding power and ability to age gracefully.
Bollinger Special Cuvée is perfect to toast the great and the small moments in life.
Grape varieties: 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Meunier
“This classic non-vintage Champagne is quite rich in style, with honeyed brioche aromas. The palate is just as forceful, with broad, ripe fruit, biscuit highlights, a creamy texture and lingering finish”.
Bollinger Rosé
Bollinger Rosé is the most recent member of the Bollinger family.
Bollinger Rosé is made by carefully blending red wine from Grand Cru vineyards in Aÿ and Verzenay. The result is a wine that is true to the bold Bollinger style, yet with fresh, red fruit notes. The seductive hints of strawberry provide a perfect contrast to the rich toasty elements.
Grape varieties: 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Meunier
“One of the world’s finest rosé Champagnes, this is rich and distinguished enough to go with a main course. Made with the addition of the best Grand Cru red wines from Ay and Verzenay, it is an intense, cherry-scented wine.”
Bollinger La Grande Année 2002
Bollinger La Grande Anneé is made only in exceptional years using the finest grapes exclusively from Grand and Premier Cru vineyard sites.
Grapes that make up La Grande Année are barrel fermented imparting complexity to the wine. It is aged for at least six years before release resulting in a rich, full bodied wine.
More than a Vintage Champagne, Bollinger’s challenge with La Grande Année is to interpret a single year with respect for the Bollinger House style. As such La Grande Année is made only in the best vintage years and 2002 is unquestionably one of the very greatest.
Grape varieties: 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay
“Complex, satisfying and extremely promising…Not heavy, just substantial”
Bollinger La Grande Année Rosé 2002
La Grande Année Rosé is made possible due to a small plot, less than a hectare, of Grand Cru vineyard situated above Bollinger in Ay called Côte aux Enfants. Here, in certain years, Pinot Noir grapes can achieve perfect ripeness to make a red wine that gives the magical element of La Grande Année Rosé.
Grape varieties: 62% Pinot Noir, 38% Chardonnay
“I was totally floored when I first tasted this stellar wine. I find it hard to put into words just how perfect the nose, palate and finish are. The cavalcade of flavours is frankly hilarious – I laughed for a day after experiencing this wine. The colour alone is a feast for your optical nerves. Deep, velvety, Regency glamour in a glass, pleads with you to sprint down to the nearest costumier for a doublet and hoes. You see fireworks (it’s OK) and Rachmaninov doodles on a Steinway in your earhole. You haven’t even tasted it yet. Then things move fast – sensual nuances of wild, pagan, red fruits rush at you from all angles primping, prodding, stroking and soothing every flavour receptor in your being. Swallow, and the world is a better place, but not as good as it is after another sip. This is as close to heaven on earth as you are going to get with a Rosé Champagne.”
Bollinger R.D. 1997
Madame Lily Bollinger, who ran the House at the time, invented the R.D. concept in Champagne in 1961. R.D. meaning “Recently Disgorged” involves ageing only the greatest Grande Année wines further in the Bollinger cellars and releasing years later.
This additional ageing and disgorging immediately prior to sale imparts paradoxical elements of extraordinary freshness alongside rich secondary and tertiary aromas. The lively freshness is as surprising and enchanting as the aromatics are intriguing.
R.D Champagnes continue to develop beautifully. They can be enjoyed straight away or be laid down to carry on developing further after disgorgement.
Grape varieties: 65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay
“This wine has one of the finest beads I have ever seen, and it has a very fine nose, full and ripe, aromatic and yet full of youthful, fresh, zesty character. It has a very pure and gentle style, fresh and elegant , certainly vivacious and polished. And yet behind this sheen of youthfulness there is a very bold and rather tertiary character. Overall, brilliantly fresh yet also subtly mature. Lovely wine.”
Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Françaises 2000
The Vieilles Vignes Françaises are two tiny plots of vineyard that are of great importance in the history of Champagne. These two walled vineyards were miraculously untouched by phylloxera and are still today ungrafted, continuing the viticultural traditions of the XIX Century.
This Blancs de Noirs is made from vines that produce extremely small yields. The resulting Champagne has a luscious, concentrated texture. Less than 3,000 bottles are produced each vintage of this extremely rare Champagne.
Grape Varieties: 100% Pinot Noir
“The most prestigious wine from the Bolly stable is so rare as to be almost invisible. A blanc de noirs made from the ancient Pinot Noir vines in a tiny vineyard in Ay, the Vieilles Vignes Francaises is a fair match for Krug’s Clos d’Ambonnay. But it doesn’t shout about it.”
____________
Storing Champagne Bollinger: Champagne should be stored horizontally, in a dark, cool place with little temperature variation to prevent the cork from drying out.
Serving Champagne Bollinger: Champagne Bollinger should be chilled to 10°C – 11°C to allow the aromas to express themselves.
