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Bought directly from Bollinger through their UK agent Mentzendorff, this is currently held in bond at London City Bond Eton Park, where it is cellared in ideal conditions and for same day deliveries small quantities are held in our London offices in a top of the range Eurocave
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Sat 3rd Jun Same Day - cost based on mileage from Islington
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Tue 6th Jun DHL Next Working Day from £9.80
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Description & Technical Information
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Champagne Bollinger owns an impressive 178 hectares of vineyards, of which 85% are in Grand Cru and Premier Cru villages. Their land is spread over seven main villages: Aÿ, Avenay, Louvois, Tauxières and Verzenay planted with Pinot Noir; Cuis with Chardonnay; and Champvoisy with Meunier. Bollinger are one of the few Houses to produce the majority of their own grapes for their blends. Pinot Noir represents 60% of the House's vineyards and defines the House style: complex and powerful with remarkable structure. In 2012 Champagne Bollinger was certified High Environment Value (HEV) this certification rewards a number of environmental procedures implemented at the Maison.
In 1976, Bollinger Vintage was re-named Grande Année. Then in 1997, it became La Grande Année - 'The Great Year' - a name simple enough to illustrate its exceptional status, because only truly extraordinary years become vintage at Bollinger. A distinctive blend between a great vintage champagne and a red wine from an exclusive plot - the legendary 4 hectare steep hillside vineyard Côte aux Enfants. Here the grapes are on a chalky rich soil exposed South-east and tilted towards the sun at 30 degrees. This unique vineyard is one of the few to contain extremely rare ungrafted vines, which produce more intense and flavourful wines with better ageing potential. La Grande Année Rosé is a rare treat and a true Bollinger.
Vinification takes place exclusively in small old oak barrels (20 years old on average), maintained in Bollinger’s cooperage, of which there are almost 3,500. Riddling and disgorging are performed entirely by hand, and take place after ageing on the lees in bottles with natural corks.
Weather:The 2012 weather has been hallmarked by many as very challenging but has created some stunning Champagne. Relatively low yields due to various weather conditions throughout the year. The winter months brought some frosts and hail which damaged the early stages of bud burst. August and September were very warm and this helped rescue and give the grapes a stunning maturity.
Technical Information:
Vineyards: 92% Grands crus and 8% Premiers Crus | Pinot Noir: Aÿ, Verzenay | Chardonnay: Le Mesnil-sur-Oger & Oiry
Grape Varieties: 67% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay | inc. 5% Red Wine from Côte aux Enfants vineyard
Dosage: 8 g/l
Disgorged: August 2019
Lees Ageing: 6.5 years
Drink: Now to 2030+
Tasting Note:A salmon-pink colour, La Grande Année Rosé 2007 is extremely aromatic with strong red fruit and peachy notes. This strength on the nose is produced by the addition of 5% of the concentrated and complex Pinot Noir from the superb Côte aux Enfants vineyard. The delicious red berry flavours continue on the palate and combines with zesty citrus fruits, leave a lasting long finish. This is a wonderfully complex rosé from a tough vintage and a wine that will certainly age well.
Champagne Bollinger Overview
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Champagne Bollinger have been creating prestigious champagnes with character, distinguished by their elegance and complexity, since 1829. The story began when the son of a noble family, Athanase de Villermont, inherited an extensive estate in the Aÿ region. Foreseeing the extraordinary potential of the wines of Champagne, he founded the firm Renaudin-Bollinger & Cie upon meeting Joseph Bollinger, a widely travelled German and Paul Renaudin, a local man fascinated by the world of wine. Nearly two hundred years later, Bollinger are one of the biggest names in the region and are famously the preferred champagne brand of fictional British Secret Service agent, James Bond.
The House owns an impressive 178 hectares of vineyards, of which 85% are Grand Cru and Premier Cru vines. Their land is spread over seven main vineyards: Aÿ, Avenay, Louvois, Tauxières and Verzenay planted with Pinot Noir; Cuis with Chardonnay; and Champvoisy with Meunier. Bollinger are one of the few Houses to produce the majority of their own grapes for their blends. Pinot Noir represents 60% of the House's vineyards and defines the House style: complex and powerful with remarkable structure. In 2012 it was certified HIGH ENVIRONMENTAL VALUE (HEV) this certification rewards a number of environmental procedures implemented at the Champagne Bollinger vineyard, such as the large-scale reduction in the use of vine protection products, the implementation of organic pesticide treatments across the entire vineyard, energy recovery from pruning waste, the application of experimental organic farming on a section of the vineyard, and the numerous other actions carried out to protect biodiversity and embellish the vineyard.
Cellar Master: Denis Bunner
Winery Location: Aÿ | Champagne, France
Champagne Region: Vallée de la Marne
Annual Production (bottles): 2,500,000
“At this point of youthfulness the pink colour is rather rich and bright. Lovely clean and fruit-forward nose with fresh red berry aromas mixing with spice and orange notes. Quite shyly evolved with much more to surface on the complexity front. Today there is attractive exuberant fruitiness and perfect creamy freshness. Promising palate with power and persistence where an overall harmony enhances the feeling of sophistication.”
98/100
Peter Moser
“Medium salmon pink, silver hues, fine persistent mousse. A hint of red forest berries followed by subtle smoky spice nuances, fresh cherry notes mingled with hints of white apple. Juicy and elegant on the palate, in perfect balance with enchanting fruit followed by a saline-mineral finish, displaying enormous length and a great drinking flow. An incredibly seductive rosé Champagne with great personality and real ageing potential.”
96/100
Antonio Galloni
“The 2012 La Grande Année Rosé is airy, gracious and so wonderfully inviting. Crushed flowers, mint, white pepper and red berry fruit are all gracefully woven together. Today, the 2012 is naturally quite young and still shows the tension of a Champagne that was disgorged just a few months ago. Readers who prefer Champagnes with softer edges and a bit more flavor complexity will want to cellar the 2012. I have to admit, I very much like the wine today, in its youthful state, where its energy and focus are front and center. The 2012 is a blend of 67% Pinot Noir and 33% Chardonnay taken from 21 villages built around a core of Aÿ and Verzenay Pinot Noir and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oiry Chardonnay, crus that are quite complementary. Disgorged January 2020. Dosage is 8 grams per liter.”
17+/20
Jancis Robinson MW
“A blend of white Grande Année 2012 with some still red from Bollinger's Côte aux Enfants vineyard.
Quite intense salmon pink with a sort of bronze tinge. Tiny bead. Heady nose. Tastes a little drier than the current Bollinger NV Rosé with a little more grip on the end and more depth – also less evolution. Long and vibrant with a hint of strawberry juice and vegetables (cabbage?). Really rather explosive on the finish. I think for current drinking I might even choose the NV version.
Drink 2022 – 2029”
95/100
William Kelley
“Disgorged with eight grams per liter dosage, Bollinger's 2012 Brut La Grande Année Rosé is showing beautifully, wafting from the glass with aromas of raspberries, plums, orange rind, walnuts and fresh bread that only hint of the complexity to come. Full-bodied, broad and vinous, with fine depth at the core, a pinpoint mousse and racy acids, it concludes with a long and perfumed finish. The blend includes 5% red wine exclusively from Bollinger's La Côte Aux Enfants vineyard—which imparts delicate phenolic grip.”
95/100
Richard Juhlin
“For the first time ever, I enjoyed the rosé edition of La Grande Année in January 2020. Mostly, LGAR has felt a little heavier than the white version. This time there is an extremely charming uplifting juiciness and fruit that makes the wine a winner. My thoughts and comparisons guides me towards historical bottles with their wonderful notes of orange fudge, nougat and white chocolate. The colour is also slightly brighter than before and the added wine from one of the foremost parcels in Aÿ, Côte aux Enfants, gives a delicious elegance and silky texture. Although the base wine is identical to LGA and only 5% red wine has been added, they are as different as night and day. The Rosé has a creaminess and charm that appeals at the moment. It is also exciting to see that the rosé has a strong element of red citrus, with blood orange and red grapefruit as clear components of the harmonic symphony. It will be an exciting journey to follow both LGA and LGAR into the future, but if I recommend a storage of at least five years in my own cellar for LGA, I will start drinking my rosé bottles with great pleasure next weekend.”
Today on The Friday Bubble Essi Avellan and Nick Baker discuss Bollinger's latest release La Grande Année Rose 2014 & comparing to the previously released LGA 2014.
Today on The Friday Bubble, Essi Avellan MW and Nick Baker, Founder of The Finest Bubble introduce Champagne Bollinger’s new release, the 3rd interpretation of the PN series, TX17.
Today sees the next edition in this new line-up. PN VZ16 is the second interpretation in a new series that will be released every year, always with a focus on one of Bollinger’s Pinot Noir crus.
In celebration of over 40 years of partnership as the Official Champagne of 007 and the upcoming film No Time To Die, Champagne Bollinger has produced a limited edition gift box that brings together three icons: Bollinger’s signature Special Cuvée, the Aston Martin DB5 and James Bond.
How Bollinger’s new PN VZ 15 is a glorious deep-dive into terroir - Written by Anne Krebiehl MW for The-Buyer.Net
The new Bollinger PN VZ 15 releases on 21st July 2020
During a visit to the house of Bollinger in Aÿ last year, we explored champagnes from some of the region's hottest ever vintages, dating as far back as 1947. We also held a mini-vertical of Special Cuvée base vintages, tasted a trio of R.D.s and had a look at the new Coteaux Champenois.
Shortly after the 2018 harvest, Bollinger Chef de Cave Gilles Descôtes declared that "2017 was the worst harvest of my life and 2018 is the best". We visited the house in Aÿ to taste the base wines and also tasted some of the rarer grape varieties, such as Arbane, Petit Meslier and Pinot Gris.
On Wednesday 6th March 2019, we’ll be going LIVE on Instagram TV with Bollinger winemaker Karl Reuter, who'll be guiding us through a tasting of six Bollinger champagnes and answering questions put to him by the live audience.
Although Chef de Cave Gilles Descôtes described 2017 as "the worst since 1893", Bollinger continued to innovate. We tasted the results of some exciting trials they are conducting with the rarer grape varieties Arbane, Petit Meslier and Pinot Gris.
It's not often that we taste Champagne that belongs in a museum. Our visit to Bollinger with Jancis Robinson MW included a tour of the newly renovated cellars and a tasting of Champagne produced during WWI.
The difficult 2016 vintage appears to have been kind to Champagne Bollinger. We tasted the Vins Clairs at the winery in Aÿ last month and the house are optimsitic - even drawing likeness to the magnificent 1988 vintage! We judged for ourselves...
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