Easter Sunday treat. The latest release of Bollinger’s wonderful RD, which stands for ‘recently disgorged’. In this case, the wine had been on its lees until January this year. This helps the Champagne to develop in a really elegant way, and it’s instructive to try this wine alongside the Grande Annee 1999, which will have been pretty much the same wine to start with, but which will have spent a lot more of its life in bottle post-disgorgement. Grande Annee is disgorged at various times, so it may have spent five years on lees (the minimum) or as long as seven years.

Champagne Bollinger RD 1999
12% alcohol. Disgorged January 2011. Intense, taut and full flavoured, with complex toasty notes and bright citrus freshness. There’s also fine acidity, and notes of ripe apple, as well as some nectarine richness. Overall, though, this is a powerful wine with savoury bite, and the potential for further development. Wonderful stuff. 95/100

See my report on a visit to Bollinger

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