Bollinger
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Bollinger is a brand of champagne (see all other Bollingers).
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[edit] Champagne
Bollinger is one of the last remaining independent champagne houses. It produces two champagne blends: Special Curvée, and Grand Année. Family managed since 1889, Bollinger maintains more than 150 hectacres of vineyards.
- Special Cuvée (non-vintage) – The expression of the Bollinger House style. This classic champagne blend uses grapes from a given year, with the addition of reserve wines. The blend includes up to 10% reserve wines, fermented in oak for up to fifteen years. This gives the special cuvee complexity and structure absent in many other non-vintage champagnes. The reserve wine allows the champagne to withstand several years of bottle age after release. (Composition: 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Meunier.)
- Grand Année (vintage) – When there is an exceptional harvest, Bollinger will produce the prestige champagne Grand Année, meaning “great vintage,” designed to express the character of the vintage. The House will select the best wines, cru by cru, to produce Grand Année. This fine champagne is also available in Rose. This champagne spends five years on its lees and is aged with cork, instead of crown seal. (Composition: 65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay, 0% Pinot Meunier.)
- R.D. (récemment dégorgé) (vintage) - This blend is “a logical extension” of the Grand Année blend, that is “taken further by extending the aging on lees.” R.D. spends eight years on its lees, and also, like the Grand Année, aged under cork, not crown seal. It is “recently filtered.”
- Vieille Vignes Françaises (vintage) – Regarded as Bollinger's prestige cuvee. This blanc de noirs is made in small quantity with only wine from two small plots of ungrafted, pre-phylloxera rootstock planted with a low density (3000 plants / hectacre). These vines are the Clos St-Jacques in Aÿ and Chaudes Terres in Aÿ. In 2006, phylloxera destroyed the third vineyard used for this wine, Croix Rouge in Bouzy[1]. The total area of vines used for this rare champagne is less than half a hectacre.
[edit] Production
Bollinger is fermented in oak barrels, making the champagne especially suited to aging in the cellar. At harvest, only the first pressing is used, the cuvée, unless the vintage is of particularly high quality, when a second pressing of Chardonnay will be used. Bollinger sells the second pressing, the tailles.
Bollinger utilizes two pressing houses (Louvois and Mareuil sur Aÿ) to ensure a short distance between harvest location and pressing. When possible grapes purchased from growers are pressed by the House. When the pressed wine arrives, the Bollinger cellar master analyzes the musts for quality, discarding and selling off those that do not meet the house standards.
The first fermentation is done cru by cru, variety by variety, preserving many of the unique characteristics of the vines location. Bollinger is one of the only champagne houses to do some first fermentation in oak barrels. Wines that will not hold up to first fermentation in wood are vinified in vats. Bollinger uses only traditional yeasts, having decided that new generations of yeasts (agglomerated yeasts and encapsulated yeasts) do not produce satisfactory champagne.
Vintage wine, including all wine to be used in Grand Annee, is fermented in small oak barrels, sorted according to origin and variety. Both oak and stainless steel are used for non-vintage wine. Bollinger employs the last Cooper in Champagne, assisting with the Houses barrel fermentation. The oak barrels are all at least four years old, avoiding the transfer of tannins to the wine. The wines are only lightly filtered.
All Bollinger champagne spends an exceptionally long time on its lees, contributing to the complex flavor the wine. Though Appellation rules only require 15 months on lees for non-vintage champagne and three years on lees for vintage, House of Bollinger ages their non-vintage three years, and the vintage five to eight years. The Grand Année and R.D. champagnes are riddled by hand.
At disgorgement, Bollinger wines are given a low dosage, to maintain the balance and flavor of the wine. The House uses 6-9 grams of sugar per liter for the Special Cuvée and La Grande Année. The extra-brut R.D. is dosed between 4 and 5 grams. After dosage, the wines are aged an additional several months, resting for a minimum of three months before shipping.
Bollinger only ships champagne ready to be consumed.
[edit] Grape Supply
Bollinger owns nearly 160 hectacres of vines, producing more than 60% of Bollinger’s supply. The vines are predominantly Pinot Noir. Bollinger’s vineyards are predominantly Pinot Noir, specifically clone 386. Bollinger believes this clone ensures good quality as well as highlighting “characteristics of the various terriors.”
The vineyards also include some rare ungrafted French vines from before the phylloxera epidemic. The House owns vines in the heart of the Champagne region, including the crus of Aÿ, Bouy and Verzenay.
[edit] Reserve Wines
Every harvest, Bollinger saves some wines from the grand crus and premier crus for reserve wines. The reserves are bottled in magnums with cork, under light pressure and aged for five to fifteen years. Bollinger maintains a large library of more than 300,000 magnums, saved cru by cru, year by year. Bollinger’s reserve wine system is unique in Champagne, and contributes to the unique style of the House Special Cuvée.
[edit] History
The champagne house Renaudin Bollinger was founded on February 6, 1829 in Aÿ by Hennequin de Villermont, Paul Renaudin and Jacques Bollinger. At the founding, the partners agreed that the Villermont name would not be used on the labels, hence Renaudin Bollinger. Starting when Jacques Bollinger married Charlotte de Villermont, the House has been managed by the Bollinger family. Even though Paul Renaudin passed without an heir his name, Renaudin, remained on the champagne labels until the 1960s, however. Today, the Bollinger champagne house continues to be operated by the Bollinger family, five generations after its founding.
The champagne House has roots in the Champagne region dating back to 1585 when the Hennequins, one of the Bollinger founding families, owned land in Cramant. Before the Bollinger House was founded, in the 18th Century the Villermont family practiced wine making, though not under their family name. In 1750, Villermont settled in the location 16 rue Jules Lobet, which would eventually become the head office for Bollinger. In 1803 Jacques Joseph Placide Bollinger was born in Ellwanger, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg. At an early age he began working at the Champagne House of Muller Ruinart, a house no longer existing, when Bollinger came to the Champagne region in 1822. Jacques Joseph Bollinger was one of many German nationals to settle in the Champagne region. Other notable names include Johann-Josef Krug and the Heidsiecks, who founded a house that would become Charles Heidsieck, Piper Heidsieck,[Veuve Clicquot and others.
Early History
Founder Jacques Joseph Bollinger married Charlotte de Villermont, and had a daughter, Marie, who had two sons Joseh and Georges. These sons took over the champagne house in 1885 and began expanding the family estate by purchasing vineyards in nearby villages. The sons also developed the image of the House, such as when Bollinger became the official supplier to the British court, receiving a Royal Warrant in 1884 from Queen Victoria.
In 1918 Jacques Bollinger, the son of Georges, took over the House. Jacques married Elizabeth Law de Lauriston Bourbers, known as “Lilly.” Jacques further expanded the facilities of the House, built new cellars, purchased the Tauxieres vineyards, and acquired a champagne House on boulevard du marechal de Lattire de Tassigny – where Bollinger’s officers are presently located.
When Jacques Bollinger died in 1941, Lilly Bollinger took over. Lilly traveled the world to promote the champagne House brand. Lilly was well-publicized in the Champagne religion, leaving several noteworthy quotes.
“I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”
The House expanded with the purchase of additional vineyards. Bollinger was managed by Lilly until 1971, when her nephews Claude d’Hautefeuille and Christian Bizot succeeded her reign.
Bollinger was modernized under the direction of Claude d’Hautefeuille. Bollinger also acquired additional vineyards and developed internationally as a brand. Following Claude, fellow nephew of Lilly, Christian Bizot took over the Bollinger champagne house. In addition to expanding the world distribution of Bollinger, Bizot developed a Charter of Ethics and Quality in 1992. Most recently, in 1994 Ghislain de Mongolfier, a great-grandson of the founder has managed the House. Mongolfier has served as president of the Association Viticole Chamenoise since 2004, after leading the Commission of Champagne for 10 years.
[edit] Popular culture references
- Absolutely Fabulous stars Eddy Monsoon and Patsy Stone favour the Bollinger brand over all others. They are famous for their "Bolli Stoli" cocktails, combining Bollinger with Stolichnaya vodka.
- James Bond has long favored Bollinger Champagne. Bond has pledged his loyalty to Bollinger for more than four decades, since Ian Fleming wrote the first James Bond novel in 1953.
- Preferred beverage of the decadent 'Bollie club'. Their consumption of Bollinger featured in the opening chapter of Evelyn Waugh's debut novel Decline and Fall.
