First taste: Bollinger’s La Grande Année 2015

Champagne Bollinger moves on this week from what were arguably two of the best-regarded releases from the Grandes Marques in 2014, La Grande Année and its rosé sibling, with a new pair from an entirely different vintage – the hot, dry 2015.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for La Grande Année white and rosé 2015

‘La Grande Année 2014 was very straight and long,’ explains Bollinger’s managing director Charles-Armand de Belenet, ‘but 2015 is more in line with the Bollinger style, a little more traditional. We had beautiful maturity, so we made a few decisions – first to increase the percentage of Chardonnay, and secondly to add more Pinot Noir from [north-facing village] Verzenay. During a hot vintage it is better to pick grapes from the north.’

La Grande Année has evolved over the last decade from Bollinger’s vintage-level offering to finding itself on par with the region’s prestige cuvées. De Belenet explains that it is a product of ‘pure craftsmanship’, pointing to the traditional fermentation in old oak, minimum seven year lees-ageing period and 100% riddling and disgorging by hand. The house, based in the grand cru-rated village of Aÿ just across the Marne river from Épernay, sits among some of the region’s most celebrated Pinot Noir vineyards, although Pinot Noir for La Grande Année also comes from both sides of the Montagne de Reims alongside the house’s historical plots of Chardonnay in the Côte des Blancs villages of Oger and Cuis.

2015 continues to be source of discussion amongst the Champenois, but many feel as though the somewhat negative reputation of the vintage is coming around with the higher-end releases; ‘At first we were all worried, everyone was speaking about these vegetal flavours in 2015,’ says De Belenet, pointing to the extreme drought at the end of the season which blocked maturity and produced some unusual flavours in the wines. Recent releases at vintage and prestige level, though, have shown that plenty of wines have escaped this fate.

La Grande Année rosé is made by adding what is, for the region, a low percentage of red wine (just 5%) from the Côte Aux Enfants vineyard in Aÿ to the blend of La Grande Année white. De Belenet calls 2015 ‘very interesting’ for red wines, with intense colour and high degrees of ripeness.

Bollinger has yet to decide whether this release will become a sought-after RD, or Recently Disgorged, release in the future (as the 2008 did most recently). De Belenet is happy, though, with the wines as they are. Indeed the two releases promise a fulsome, outgoing sense of enjoyment for lovers of Champagnes for the table.

Tasting notes and scores for La Grande Année white and rosé 2015

Also listed below are three other Bollinger Champagnes tasted alongside the new releases

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