Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 54

Top 100 Wineries

O LD WO R LD

CÔTE AUX ENFANTS IN AŸ

GILLES
DESCOTES

Bollinger
FRANCE | CHAMPAGNE
The team at Bollinger crafts long-lived Champagnes that
sustain their energy and depth of flavor for decades.

FOUNDED:

1829

OWNER:

The Jacques
Bollinger Co.
CHEF DE CAVE:

Gilles Descôtes
ACRES OWNED:

405
CASES PRODUCED:

N/A
ESTATE GROWN:

60%
IMPORTER:

Vintus,
Pleasantville, NY
54

After AthAnAse de Villermont, a French aristocrat, inherited vineyards in Aÿ, he met a local winemaker, Paul Renaudin, and a German trader who had moved to Champagne,
Joseph Bollinger. In 1829, they founded the firm that would
become Bollinger, still focused in 2019 on hand-crafted
Champagne. Today, the team includes a resident cooper to
tend to the barrels, and enough cellar staff to sustain traditions like fermenting the base wines in oak, riddling the
bottles by hand and managing a selection of reserve wines
in magnums. The style is distinctive, based on a majority
of pinot noir in the blends, which, combined with the quality of the farming, produces a power in the wines that has
nothing to do with alcohol. "We want the old wines to stay
young," says Denis Bunner, the assistant chef de cave, whose
first project at Bollinger was assessing ancient wines back to
firm's first vintages-they'd been recently discovered, hidden
behind some detritus and a false wall within the three-mile
maze of Bollinger's underground cellars in Aÿ.
Bollinger's commitment to craft ties the wines back to
farming. Gilles Descôtes, the firm's chef de cave since 2013,
originally came onboard as vineyard manager. He started
plowing the vineyards with horses ten years ago, using
pheromones to control insect pests, and experimenting
with organic viticulture. Today, all the red-wine vineyards
(those used for the Brut Rosé and Coteaux Champenois) are
farmed under organics. Descôtes tracks sugar accumulation

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in the grapes, so he can harvest while they're still on the
upswing. And to sustain that harvest goal in a changing
climate, the team has been experimenting with local varieties, farming a parcel of arbonne in Aÿ, a plot of petit
meulier in Cuis, some pinot gris in Verzenay and pinot
blanc in Avenay, all planted in 2010. In 2018, they vinified the wines separately, encouraged by the results with
arbonne and petit meulier, which had achieved both high
ripeness and high acidity in the vintage. "Those varieties
could be interesting in the future," Descôtes says. -J.G.
2004 Champagne RD Extra Brut ($300, 98 points) Bollinger holds back certain vintages for extended aging on the
lees, then releases them within three months of disgorgement,
a policy whose worth is proven by this 2004. It's a joyous wine,
staunch, cold and powerful at first, transforming to fresh fruit
shadowed by darker tones of barrel fermentation. As it opens
in the glass, floral pear and apple flavors emerge, the wine resonant with a sense of limestone capturing the sun and reflecting it back in pale power.
2007 Champagne La Grande Année Brut ($158, 95
points) An exceptional and markedly concentrated 2007, this
wine seems to radiate energy out of its core. There's a compressed floral spice and a touch of sweetness to the fruit that
accommodates the mineral abrasion, the elements completely
integrated, the flavors lasting for minutes. The blend is 70 percent pinot noir, mostly from Aÿ and Verzenay, with chardonnay
from Cramant and Oger; 91 percent grows in grand-cru sites.
2007 Champagne La Grande Année Brut Rosé ($205, 93
points) This gains its light pink color from still pinot noir wine
(six percent of the blend) grown at Bollinger's Côte aux Enfants
monopole in Aÿ. It's tight, austere and tannic, still youthfully
inaccessible at more than ten years of age. The scents of redapple skin, hibiscus and sage complement the red fruit, adding spicy intensity that lasts. Built to cellar.

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019

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