Champagne Bollinger: producer profile

It appears to be a sleepy port on the Marne river, yet the village of Aÿ and the chalky slopes above it harbour one of the region’s giants – Champagne Bollinger. 

As this independent, family-owned firm approaches the bicentennial of its founding, Bollinger and its holding company Société Jacques Bollinger are taking on global importance.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 15 Bollinger Champagnes

How it all started

Bollinger has always stood out. While most of the grande marque houses are located in the main towns of Reims and Epernay, Bollinger has been based in the Marne Valley town of Aÿ since inception.

The firm was founded in 1829 by Athanase Louis Emmanuel Hennequin, Comte de Villermont. Villermont teamed up with Paul Renaudin and Joseph Bollinger, known as Jacques, friends who worked together at the house of Müller-Ruinart. Bollinger married Athanase’s daughter Charlotte, and after his death the firm was run by their son Georges and grandson Jacques until the latter’s untimely death in 1941.

Jacques’ wife Lily assumed the management of the company, expanding the vineyard holdings and tirelessly promoting her Champagne.

Prestige cuvées

Lily also developed the two cuvées that made Bollinger the darling of wine collectors.

The first is called R.D., for Recemment Dégorgé (or Recently Disgorged), a vintage wine with extended ageing. The first R.D. was the 1952 vintage, released in 1967.

Lily’s most innovative creation, however, was the wine she called Vieilles Vignes Françaises, among the rarest Champagnes produced. Known as ‘VVF’ by fans, it is made exclusively from Pinot Noir grown in two tiny vineyards of ungrafted wines in Aÿ that grow as they did in the early 19th century before the phylloxera infestation devastated France’s vineyards.

Cask fermentation

The house’s flagship is the iconic non-vintage Special Cuvée.

The style is rich, almost voluptuous, with a dominance of Pinot Noir. The reserve wines are fermented in cask and aged in magnum to add complexity. The use of cask fermentation is one of the trademarks of the Bollinger style. The cellars boast more than 3,500 casks, and the house supports a full-time cooper to assure their upkeep.

‘La Grande Année’ (both blanc and rosé) is the Bollinger name for the first tier of the vintage wines. The base wines are fermented in cask and aged under cork before disgorging. This small fact has a significant impact, giving the wines a silky, dense texture and accentuating the vinosity of the house style, but requiring that each bottle is disgorged by hand.

In addition to its other vintage wines, Bollinger occasionally releases limited editions. Many of these capitalise on their association with James Bond, including the blanc de noirs James Bond Limited Edition 2011, the 2007 ‘Tribute to Moonraker’ magnums (priced at €5,007), and the 2002 Skyfall Edition. 

Vineyards

Bollinger owns 178 hectares of vines, which provide more than 60% of its total needs. The backbone is more than 55 hectares of Pinot Noir from the grand crus of Aÿ, Verzenay, Louvois and Bouzy, and nearly 30ha more from premier crus Avenay Val d’Or, Bisseuil, Mutigny and Tauxières.

This is balanced by the freshness of Chardonnay from premier crus Cuis and Grauves, and Meunier from Champoisy.

Champagne Bollinger: the facts

Date founded: 1829

Owner: Société Jacques Bollinger, the holding company owned by the descendants of Jacques Bollinger

Chef de Caves: Gilles Descôtes, with assistance from his adjunct chef de caves, Denis Bunner 

Annual production: Approximately 3,000,000 bottles/year

Area under vine: 178 hectares

Key wines : Special Cuvée, La Grande Année, R.D., Vieilles Vignes Françaises, Bollinger PN, La Côte aux Enfants

Mad about Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir has been a focus for Bollinger from the beginning. The house makes three wines that use this grape exclusively.

The first is Vieilles Vignes Françaises, described above. Because this vinous wine needs time in the cellar before drinking, Bollinger decided recently to launch a new wine called ‘Bollinger PN’. 

This blanc de noirs is meant as an approachable stablemate to Vieilles Vignes Françaises.

The base wines are all from house-owned vineyards; half are fermented in cask, and 20% comes from the magnums of reserve wine. As conceived, the origin of the wine may change each year, but the first two have both been based on grapes from the grand cru village of Verzenay, blended with reserve wines that date back to 2009. According to winemaker Denis Bunner, ‘We are looking for a certain vinosity—a wine with broad shoulders’.

The third wine in the Pinot Noir-only camp has no bubbles. It is a still red wine that falls under the appellation Coteaux Champenois and is named La Côte aux Enfants after the single vineyard in Aÿ where the grapes are grown.

Quite different from a Burgundy Pinot Noir, it will appeal to fans of elegant and delicate wines. La Côte aux Enfants is fermented using 25–35% whole clusters that macerate before fermentation for up to six days. There may be a post-fermentation maceration depending on the vintage, before maturation in small casks for eight months.

The result has beautifully pure cherry fruit and elegant floral notes, but despite its ethereal nature it is not lacking in structure.

What’s next for Bollinger?

Société Jacques Bollinger is the proprietor of both Champagne Bollinger and its Aÿ neighbor Champagne Ayala, purchased in 2005 from the Frey Family.

In Burgundy it owns venerable négociant firm Domaine Chanson and crémant producer Langlois Château in the Loire Valley, as well as Delamain Cognac.

In the New World, Bollinger has invested in the winery Tapanappa in Australia’s Wrattonbully region with partners Jean Michel Cazes from Château Lynch-Bages and Brian Croser, founder of Australia’s Petaluma Winery.

Bollinger’s latest acquisition has been the purchase of Ponzi Vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley in April 2021.

In addition to its vineyard holdings, Société Jacques Bollinger (SJB) also owns Bollinger Diffusion, which handles the distribution of its products in France. It is also a shareholder, with The Fladgate Partnership (Taylor’s, Croft, and Fonseca ports), in their joint English agent Mentzendorff.

This year, SJB also took a minority stake in UK-based wine merchant Bordeaux Index (BI Wines). With all of these projects, it seems the family is preparing for a busy third century.

Champagne Bollinger: current and previous releases tasted & rated

Champagnes are listed by cuvée, in descending vintage order

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