Bollinger

Bollinger Special Cuvée|Brut|NV

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Descriptors & Texture

Descriptors & Texture

Pinot Noir Dominant

Winemaking

Winemaking

Barrel-maturation

Earth

Earth

Mineral

Foods

Foods

Brioche Honey

Orchard Fruit

Orchard Fruit

Red Apple

Stone Fruit

Stone Fruit

Peach Nectarine Black Cherry Fig

Herbs & Spices

Herbs & Spices

Ginger

What to expect

Let's just start by saying this is one of the best NV cuvees in the market due to the attention to detail and care taken in making this wine. The question that presents itself is why is the Cuvee so Special?

Well, according to the President of Bollinger Bernard Phillipon, he explained that the 5 pillars that make it so special are;

1. The vineyard, having fresh fruit to select from and keep consistency year on year.

2. High proportion of pinot noir which is a part of the signature of this house.

3. Use of oak barrels, all 3,500 of them which makes Bollinger the house with the most oak barrels in champagne (similar to Krug) and all ferments happen in oak.

4. About 50-60% reserve wines being used, and these have come from magnums. This is substantially important as most houses use barrels or stainless steel vates to store large amounts of reserve wine to blend into their wine. All magnums are listed, village by village. Think about that for a second... That's a lot of work and is uncommon in champagne.

5. The last ingredient in making the Special Cuvée special is 'time'. 3 years on lees in barrel, magnum and bottle.  The result is a mineral-driven, vinous style of champagne that yields richness in fruit from pinot and an underlying super fresh, citrus zing coming through. Does it get much better than this?

$85.95

Club Price $80.75 (?)

Send to friend

Descriptors & Texture

Descriptors & Texture

Pinot Noir Dominant

Winemaking

Winemaking

Barrel-maturation

Earth

Earth

Mineral

Foods

Foods

Brioche Honey

Orchard Fruit

Orchard Fruit

Red Apple

Stone Fruit

Stone Fruit

Peach Nectarine Black Cherry Fig

Herbs & Spices

Herbs & Spices

Ginger

What to expect

Let's just start by saying this is one of the best NV cuvees in the market due to the attention to detail and care taken in making this wine. The question that presents itself is why is the Cuvee so Special?

Well, according to the President of Bollinger Bernard Phillipon, he explained that the 5 pillars that make it so special are;

1. The vineyard, having fresh fruit to select from and keep consistency year on year.

2. High proportion of pinot noir which is a part of the signature of this house.

3. Use of oak barrels, all 3,500 of them which makes Bollinger the house with the most oak barrels in champagne (similar to Krug) and all ferments happen in oak.

4. About 50-60% reserve wines being used, and these have come from magnums. This is substantially important as most houses use barrels or stainless steel vates to store large amounts of reserve wine to blend into their wine. All magnums are listed, village by village. Think about that for a second... That's a lot of work and is uncommon in champagne.

5. The last ingredient in making the Special Cuvée special is 'time'. 3 years on lees in barrel, magnum and bottle.  The result is a mineral-driven, vinous style of champagne that yields richness in fruit from pinot and an underlying super fresh, citrus zing coming through. Does it get much better than this?

About the house

About the house

Technical details

Bollinger remain quite possibly one of the most famous family-owned champagne houses of all. Bollinger are well known for their dominance of the powerful and expressive pinot noir from Aÿ where they were founded, their use of magnums for production of all their wines and a traditional wine making style incorporating fermentation in oak barrels from which they have never deviated. They still have their own in-house cooper who makes and manages their stock of some 3,500 barrels! That equates to about 1 million bottles being fermented in barrel - that is the largest (along with Krug) of any other producer in the region. Currently Bollinger own some 164 hectares in some of the best sites across Champagne.

Technical details

The complexity and richness of Special Cuvée is unparalleled among the entry-level non vintage blends of every champagne house, short of ascending to the mesosphere of Krug. Its grand recipe explains why. A blend of 60% pinot noir, 25% chardonnay and 15% meunier, it’s built on incredible depth of 50–60% reserves. Further intensity is derived from 30–40% of the blend in oak barrels, and a very high proportion of grand cru and premier cru fruit sources (more than 85%). Post-blending, the wine matures for between three and four years on lees in the cellar before it is disgorged and a light dosage of 8g/L is added. This cuvée represents 90% of the production of the house – more than 2.5 million bottles annually. The Champagne Guide 2018-2019 - Tyson Stelzer