deVine Thoughts

August 3, 2008


Ed & Annabelle Visit Bollinger

Filed under: deVine's Daily Blog Article — Dirk @ 7:22 am

Bollinger_Christian_DennisAuthors: Ed Fong, Dirk Chan

Our visit with Christian Dennis, the International Ambassador for Bollinger was a very special day indeed.  Bollinger is one of the leading houses in all of Champagne, with an illustrious history dating back to the 1500’s and one of the few houses that remain family owned. Did we mention we love their bruts? Bolly produces a total of 2.5 million bottles  (versus 20 million produced by Moet of Dom Perignon fame). We all know of Bollinger’s vintage Bruts – Vieille Vignes Françaises, Grand Année and R.D. and the non-vintage Special Cuvée made famous by movie folklore as being James 007 Bond’s favourite bubblie. As we toured the two walled-off plots  of Pinot Noir vines that survived the famous phylloxera attack that go into the ultra-rare premium Vieille Vignes Francaise bottling (the third vineyard in Bouzy succumbed in 2004), we began to get a glimpse of the great history and tradition behind this house. Bruts are still stored in small casks, they are the only house that still employs a cooper, who is responsible for repairing 350 casks per year!

The methods here are traditional, for their choice cuvées they exclusively use Pinot Noir (60+%) and the Chardonnay (40%) grapes from vineyards over 70% of which are Grand Cru designated; barrel fermentation of Cru’s Bollinger_Entranceare done in magnums that are cork-sealed and see extra-long aging on their lees which gives Bolly that trademark doughy quality.  We tried the fabulous 2002 Grande Année but were pleasantly surprised by “2003 by Bollinger”, a special one-off release in this difficult hot year –  it is very unlike Bolly, as it is fresh, elegant and very approachable with no heavy doughy notes of the other Bruts – what a shock! Annabelle & I both liked it, we should get some.

We spoke with Christian about the rising prices of Champagnes – he said that 2/3 of Bollinger’s Bruts are estate grown (a very high percentage) with the remaining 1/3 purchased, and the increasing prices are from having to buy fruit from growers (record prices of 5.7 euro paid per kg of grapes in 2007). Our thanks to our friends at Clarus who set up this exciting visit that clearly shows there’s more to Champagne Bollinger than just James Bond’s favourite celebratory drink.

NV Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut – $78.99

1999 Bollinger La Grande Année Brut – $159.99

1998 Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Francaises – $539.99

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