Personal advice
The historic Champagne house Bollinger has stood since 1829 for barrel-fermented, full-bodied, and complex Champagnes of impressive structure and depth. The headquarters is located in Aÿ, precisely where the southern Montagne de Reims transitions into the Marne Valley.
Aÿ has been famous for centuries for its great Pinot Noirs. As still wines, they were once as sought after at the French royal court as the finest Burgundies.
This grape variety achieves a ripeness, power, and fullness here that is unmatched elsewhere in Champagne.
Founder Jacques Bollinger early combined the strong terroir character of this Grand Cru with cooler Pinot Noir plots from Verzenay and the mineral Chardonnays of the Côte des Blancs. This style-defining idea has remained unchanged to this day.
Bollinger Champagnes are characterized by concentrated Pinot Noirs from the best plots.
Barrel aging brings fine oxidative notes reminiscent of walnut and ripe apples. With increasing maturity, aromas of nougat, hazelnut, gunpowder, orange zest, lemon, and dried apricot unfold.
The long lees aging ensures a creamy texture and ultra-fine bubbles.
The art of Bollinger lies in the perfect balance between power, depth, and mineral freshness. Jacques Bollinger deliberately sought cooler Grand Cru plots in Verzenay and mineral Chardonnays from the Côte des Blancs to harmoniously balance the style.
Under cellar master Denis Bunner, the style has become somewhat more modern in recent years: less oxidative notes, slightly fresher fruit, and a finer palate. However, the 2015 vintage is powerful and traditional.
Bollinger's non-vintage formerly rightfully bore the name "Special Cuvée." In the last 20 years, production has been greatly expanded. It is no longer as concentrated and is now largely vinified in tank. A well-made Champagne – but for connoisseurs no longer truly interesting.
Bollinger's vintage Champagne remains one of the very few that can still evoke great emotions today. While even traditional houses like Krug increasingly focus on more fruit and earlier drinkability, Bollinger adheres to the old values and methods with La Grande Année.
Through oxidative barrel aging, it already shows complex, nutty aromas when young. The long lees aging ensures ultra-fine bubbles. While it used to take seven years, they now go to nine years for 2008 and back to seven for 2015.
The exceptionally old chalk soils of Verzenay give the wine a pronounced freshness and mineral note, further supported by the low dosage. However, the acidity is not as intense as in wines with a higher Chardonnay proportion from the Côte des Blancs.
When young, La Grande Année has a short drinking window in which the lees-aging aromas dominate. The refined maturation aromas appear only after eight to twelve years. With classically structured vintages like 1996 and 2008, it can take 20 years for true harmony to unfold.
Bollinger long did not consider rosé a serious Champagne for connoisseurs. Compared to the regular white vintage Champagne, the rosé was always softer, fruitier, less complex, less structured, and less capable of development.
1985 is the first vintage. 1996 and 2002 are among the best rosés. The first rosé that truly excited us is the 2012 vintage. For the first time, we experience freshness on the level of the white, and in 2012 even a nuance better.
Bollinger R.D. – Récemment DégorgéThis cuvée goes back to an idea from Julius Wile, the U.S. importer, in the 1960s: to combine the maturity of an older vintage with the freshness of a recently disgorged Champagne. In 1967, three R.D. vintages were presented at once – 1952 for England, 1953 for France and Switzerland, 1955 for the USA and Italy. The dosage at that time was 13 g per liter. The 1952 still has aromas of honey and sweet black cherries.
R.D. is based on the same base wines as La Grande Année but ages significantly longer on the lees and thus gains even more complexity and silkiness. It can be drunk well a few years after disgorgement, then closes up again and needs several years in the cellar.
Compared to La Grande Année, the dosage is even lower. When young, it appears more acidity-driven, more firmly structured, with aromas leaning toward grilled hazelnuts, hazelnut, and lactic cheese notes.
In the long term, La Grande Année reaches the same level with appropriate maturation. Compared to old vintages, R.D. shows slightly less fruit, but sometimes more complex nut aromas. Overall, bottles from the 50s and 60s show that the regular vintage lasts longer.
The phylloxera plague raged in Champagne since the beginning of the last century. The Bollingers were forced to replant most vineyards in the 1920s onto resistant rootstocks. Some own-rooted plots remained in Aÿ and Bouzy. These give the old vintages a special quality.
In 1969, faced with the further spread of the disease and ever-decreasing quantities, they decided to release a cuvée made only from grapes of these vines.
The idea came from the English journalist Cyril Ray. 1969 is still outstanding today. Due to the small yields and deep roots, there are more VVF vintages than vintage or Grande Année. 1980 and 1981, for example, are great and were not otherwise offered as vintage Champagne by Bollinger.
Today, only the two parcels Chaudes Terres and Clos St Jacques near the headquarters remain. They lie on the plateau, so they do not have the same sun exposure as the Côtes aux Enfants, traditionally considered the best vineyard. However, the own-rooted vines add an extra dimension of depth, structure, and complexity.
Vieilles Vignes Françaises – Bollinger News
Bollinger owns nearly 178 hectares of vineyards – an exception in Champagne. This estate covers the entire production; only for Special Cuvée are grapes purchased. In La Grande Année, plots from 18 villages are used. Around 70% Pinot Noir comes mainly from Aÿ, Verzenay, and Louvois, 29% Chardonnay from Avize, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, and Cramant.
Through strict yield reduction and selective harvesting, the concentrated, full-bodied style for which Bollinger is famous is created. The Chardonnays provide freshness and tension – an ideal balance of power and elegance.
Historically, it is the savoir-faire of the houses that creates the added value, while grape growing is mostly in smallholder hands. It would be easy for successful houses to buy vineyards – but difficult to organize the care of large areas efficiently and at high quality. The contract grower manages his own land and is paid for grapes, so his motivation is far higher than that of poorly paid wage laborers. Bollinger masters this challenge masterfully.
What drove Joseph Bollinger to care about his own vineyards? He early recognized the importance of terroir. Long before such factors were even perceived, he understood that Aÿ, while ensuring high, reliable ripeness of Pinot Noir, produces overly rich wines in warmer years that lack freshness, balance, and sometimes even complexity. From this realization, he bought land in the cooler Grand Cru Verzenay – a decision his descendants consistently continued.
Today, in times when land and grapes are expensive, it is precisely this ownership of own plots that enables the house to maintain elaborate, traditional methods with costly manual labor. The barrels are made in-house, the bottles are riddled by hand, and reserve wines are stored not in tanks but in magnums under natural cork. Since grapes do not have to be paid expensively, completely different financial possibilities exist.
Only the first press juice is used for La Grande Année. After cold clarification, the base wines mature in four-year-old oak barrels to preserve the typical Bollinger style without excessive wood tones. Malolactic fermentation occurs according to natural activity. Each plot is fermented separately; filtration occurs only for Special Cuvée. Lees aging lasts 8 to 9 years, sometimes slightly shorter for younger vintages. Dosage is 5 to 8 g/l – always in the dry range.
R.D. is an identical cuvée but ages 13 to 15 years on lees. Previously, R.D. aged nine to twelve years on lees, as vintage Champagne still had a shorter lees aging of seven years. Special Cuvée is produced more modernly and described separately.
Jacob Joseph Placidus Bollinger was born in 1803 in Ellwangen and moved to Champagne in 1822. There he is called Jacques. He is one of many Germans who settled in Champagne at that time. In Aÿ, he founded the Champagne house Renaudin Bollinger on February 6, 1829, with Athanase-Louis-Emmanuel Hennequin Comte de Villermont and Paul Leviex Renaudin. Jacques marries de Villermont's daughter Charlotte. Although Paul Renaudin dies without heirs, the labels show the double name Renaudin Bollinger until 1962.
Since its founding, the house has owned large vineyard holdings. Athanase de Villermont inherits these plots after distinguishing himself as a soldier in the American War of Independence. He recognizes the great potential for wine growing, but Champagne is not a respectable occupation for him. Therefore, he lets Messrs. Bollinger and Renaudin take the lead and hides behind the "Cie."
Jacques' grandsons Georges and Charles take over management in 1885 and buy vineyards in Verzenay and other great plots north of the headquarters.
Bollinger stands for an elitist quality standard. Since 1984, it has been the official supplier to Queen Victoria.
Georges dies in 1918, and his son Jacques takes over the house. He buys vineyards in Tauxières and remains less known than his wife Lily, née Emily Law de Lauriston Bourbers, who continues the house after his death. On her initiative, R.D. is introduced as a cuvée with particularly long lees aging. Lily ensures prominent marketing appearances, and Bollinger is also introduced to a wider audience through the James Bond films.
In 1971, her nephews Claude d’Hautefeuille and Christian Bizot take over. Ghislain de Montgolfier, great-grandson of the founder, has led the house since 1994. The house remains family-owned and shows remarkable continuity in style, production, and philosophy.