The
wines
of Champagne
Bollinger,
including Vieilles Vignes Françaises
Website: http://www.bollinger.fr/
Bollinger
is one of the best known of the prestige Champagne houses. Its
Special Cuvée is widely regarded to be a leading example of NV
fizz, with dense flavours and the ability to develop a bit in
bottle. Grande Année is their well-regarded vintage Champagne,
and interestingly seems to sit just under the prestige cuvées of
most other houses in terms of price. In the portfolio there is a
niche product, the RD, and of course the legendary Vieilles Vignes
Françaises. More on these later.
Bollinger own 160 hectares of vines, which is a lot
compared with most Champagne houses, and meets 60% of
Bollinger’s needs. These are spread among a range of different
crus, and the emphasis here is on Pinot Noir: Speciale Cuvée is
60% Pinot Noir, while Grande Année is 65%. The Pinot Noir clone
386 (also known as Pinot Moret) is favoured here. The house owns
two pressing houses, and just uses the ‘cuvée’, the first
pressing, selling off the ‘taille’, the second pressing, to
other houses.
Bollinger is well known for its use of small oak
barrels for fermenting and ageing a portion of its wine. These are
never new: they must be at least four years old to avoid adding
any oak imprint or oak tannin to the wine. They allow for a gentle
oxygen exposure, which increases the complexity and longevity of
the wine.
These wines were tasted with Bollinger chairman
Ghislain de Montgolfier (pictured), the great grandson of the
founder.
Bollinger Special Cuvée
Bold and quite fresh on the nose with some toasty, herby
complexity. The palate is fresh and bright with good acidity.
There’s a precision here alongside the bold, toasty flavours.
Really nice stuff. 92/100
Bollinger La Grande Année 1997
Wonderfully toasty nose is quite tight with a lovely herby
character, some citrus notes and a hint of vanilla. The palate is
complex and bold with tight lemony notes alongside some richer
herby characters. Powerful and expressive at the some time, this
is a structured, almost profound wine. 93/100
‘2003 by Bollinger’
2003 was an atypical year in Champagne, when it was just too
hot to make a typical vintage wine. ‘I’m proud of the risk
that we took in 2003’, says Montgolfier. ‘Usually, we blend
[from weaker years], but here we decided to make no Grande Année
or RD. As wine lovers, when we had such good base wines we
didn’t want to forget this year.’ So a special wine, the 2003,
was made. It’s a nice drop, but I’m not sure this was a
fantastic decision because the wine is atypical and lacks the sort
of qualities that make Champagne special. Bright and extremely
fruity with quite a delicate character. It’s accessible and
fresh with subtle herb notes and a bit of toast. Easy drinking
style. 89/100
Bollinger RD 1995
RD (recently disgorged) is a unique concept. The RD is a
Grande Année that has been kept in Bollinger’s cellars for
8–25 years and then disgorged as an ultra brut, with a dosage of
just 5 g sugar per litre. This is a deep-coloured wine that’s
tight, savoury and bold, with high acidity evident. It’s toasty
and structured; intensely savoury, with striking flavours of herbs
and acidity. Startling, and a bit extreme. 92/100
Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Françaises 1999
Vieilles Vignes is a relic of what Champagne would have been
like before phylloxera destroyed the vineyards. It comes from
three plots of Pinot Noir, planted prephylloxera on their own
roots at a fantastic density of 30 000 plants per hectare (most
modern vineyards are 5000 or lower). The vines are planted en
foule (a cane from one vine is layered into the ground to
create another) and cultivated by hand. Not much is made. The
annual allocation for the UK is 12–18 bottles, and at the lunch
we drank half of this. Sorry. What does it taste like? Wonderfully
complex open nose is delicate and beguiling, with apples, herbs
and subtle toasty notes. The palate is concentrated and elegant
with a lovely complex rounded character: there’s some honey,
some spice and it’s broad and full. There’s lots happening
here: a Champagne of real depth and complexity. 94/100
see
also:
Wines tasted 08/07
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