Bollinger Champagne
Buy Bollinger Champagne online Here
Bollinger is one of the last remaining independent Champagne houses managed by the family since 1889.
Types of Bollinger Champagne:
Special Cuvée is a non-vintage classic champagne blend that uses grapes from a specific year as well as the addition of reserve wines. This champagne has been described as “classic, Pinot-dominated Champagnes of great potential longevity and complexity” by Tom Stevenson.
The blend is unique in that it utilizes 10 percent of reserve wines, which in some cases is up to 15 years old. The composition of the Special Cuvée is 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, and 15% Pinot Meunier.
Grand Année is a vintage champagne, which is only produced when Bollinger believes they have an exceptional harvest. The meaning of Grand Année once translated is great vintage thus the reason to reserve the creation to ensure the expression of the character of the vintage.
Bollinger will only choose the best wines, cru by cru to use to create Grand Année. This vintage champagne is available as a Rose as well.
The champagne will stay on its lees for five years and will age in bottle under cork instead of the normal crown seal. Composition of the Grand Année is 65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay, and 0% Pinot Meunier.
Vieille Vignes Françaises is a vintage champagne, which is often regarded as Bollinger prestige cuvee.
This unique and delightful champagne is only made in small quantities from two small vineyards. The grapes are severely pruned which causes them to produce 35 percent less juice per vine which creates an astonishing rich wine.
Most popular Bollinger champagnes include:
Special Cuvée
La Grande Année – 1992, 1995, 1996, and 1997
La Grande Année Rose – 1995 and 1996
Vieilles Vignes Françaises – 1992 and 1996
Buy Bollinger Champagne online Here
The History of Bollinger
Prior to the founding of the champagne house, one of the founding families owned land in Cramant. The Villermont family was in the business of wine making and in the 1750 settled at 16 rue Jules Loget that was to be known as the head office for Bollinger in later years.
Jacques Joseph Placide Bollinger was born in Ellwanger in 1803, and moved to the Champagne region in 1822. He started out working at the Muller Ruinart champagne house.
On February 6, 1829, the Champagne house Renaudin Bollinger was founded in Aÿ by Hennequin de Villermont, Paul Renaudin, and Jacques Bollinger. The partners agreed that the Villermont name would not be placed on the labels.
At the time when Jacques Bollinger married Charolette de Villermont, the champagne house was managed by the Bollinger family. The label did not become the sole property of Bollinger until the 1960’s.
Jacques and Charolette had a daughter that had two sons, Joseph and Georges. The sons took over the management of the champagne house in 1885, but the sons were responsible for developing the image of the brand when Bollinger became the official supplier to the British court, receiving a Royal Warrant in 1884 from Queen Victoria.
The family has managed and expanded the facilities as well as the amount of vineyards owned and at this time maintains over 150 hectares of vineyards. The company produces several labels of champagne with the most popular being vintages labels such as vintage Vieille Vignes Françaises, Grand Année, and non-vintage labels like Special Cuvée.
Buy Bollinger Champagne online Here
