Bollinger RD 2007

With its aromas of yeast, roasted hazelnut and lemon, the fine mousse and delicate freshness, the RD 2007 is currently in a nice drinking window, which is marked by the long yeast ageing. It is surprisingly fresh and has hardly any oxidative notes. 

It consists of 70 percent Pinot Noir, especially from the Ay and Verzenay sites, and 30 percent Chardonnay from the famous Cote de Blancs sites. It also contains small quantities from unusual 1er Cru sites such as Tauxières, which at 99, is the highest-rated Premier Cu, and Grauves, which with north-west-facing slopes, has the most intense acidity among the Chardonnays of the Cote de Blancs.

In the 1960s, Lily Bollinger had the then unusual idea of combining the fine ripeness of an older vintage, where fruit is no longer the main feature, with the yeasty freshness of a Champagne that had just been disgorged. In 1967, the 1952 was the first RD to come onto the market. The label of the 2007 is a reissue of the first label.

The RD 2007 is rated 97 points each at Galloni Vinous and the Wine Advocate and 94 by Richard Juhlin.

Wine Advocate 97Disgorged on July 10, 2020, with three grams per liter dosage, Bollinger's eagerly awaited 2007 Extra-Brut R. D. is beautiful, unwinding in the glass with aromas of crisp orchard fruit, citrus pith and white flowers mingled with hints of honey, orange oil, buttery pastry, English walnuts and delicately spicy bass notes. Full-bodied, vibrant and incisive, it's unusually elegant and structurally fine-boned for what is routinely one of Champagne's more muscular tête de cuvées, with a bright spine of acidity that's cloaked in vibrant, concentrated fruit, complemented by a pearly pinpoint mousse and concluding with an intensely sapid finish. Long and penetrating, this is a tightly coiled R. D. that will reward bottle age. The fruit of an early harvest, beginning on September 1st, Bollinger's superb 2007 R. D. is an unusually delicate, fine-boned rendition of this habitually muscular cuvée. An additional seven years on the lees has brought additional textural and amplitude to the acid spine that was already evident in the 2007 Grande Année, and the slight loss of pressure during aging on cork makes for a more refined, pearly mousse that complements the wine's enhanced texture and amplified sapid nuance. Fermented in used oak cooperage, with tirage under natural cork and disgorgement without added sulfur dioxide (but now with jetting to ensure consistency), it's one of the few tête de cuvée bottlings still made very much as it was 40 years ago. While I don't tend to comment on packaging, Bollinger's decision to revive the tasteful aluminum label that graced this cuvée's debut 1952 rendition, when the redoubtable Madame Lilly Bollinger still presided over this house, does underscore what is a real and not merely superficial commitment to artisanal traditions. dRINK 2021-2037