Champagne Bollinger - Brut Spécial Cuvée

Bettane & Desseauve

About wine:

Spécial Cuvée benefits from a high proportion of reserve wines stored in magnums, ensuring unparalleled precision in the blends.

About the estate:

A large traditional house established in Aÿ since 1829, Bollinger remains at the highest level in Champagne. Its 178-hectare vineyard of grands and premiers crus provides 60% of its supply. All vintage wines are vinified in barrels, as is a small proportion of the house's multi-vintage brut, the Special Cuvée. This benefits from a high proportion of reserve wines stored in magnums, ensuring unrivalled precision in the blends. In recent years, the house has been creating exciting new cuvées: a blanc de noir d'Aÿ from the Côte aux Enfants plot, which also produces a superb coteau champenois. And pinot noir cuvées whose names come from the dominant cru in the blend, which varies each year. All of the house's wines shine at the table.

Guide Hachette des vins

About the estate:

Famous house founded in 1829 by Joseph Bollinger, a wine merchant originally from Württemberg. It has remained a family business, even though since 2008 it has been chaired by someone outside the family (Charles-Armand de Belenet since 2017). With a 179-hectare vineyard dominated by Pinot Noir (60%) and its own cooperage, it maintains its style based on skillful blends of wines vinified separately in oak barrels (reused to avoid overpowering woodiness) and small capacity vats. As for the reserve wines, they are stored in magnums under "petite mousse" (a thin layer of foam). The wines are bottled with corks and benefit from long aging on lees. Gilles Descôtes joined the company in 2003 and succeeded six cellar masters in 2013.

Guide des Vins Gault & Millau

About wine:

A creamy freshness emerges from the initial aromas of white fruits (peach, quince), raspberry, and chalk in a delicate and refined nose. The remarkably creamy bubbles add a lightness to a charming, fruity, and rounded texture without any heaviness. The comfortable finish retains a hint of acidity. The remarkably creamy bubbles bring an airy quality to a charming texture, full of fruit and roundness without any heaviness. The comfortable finish retains a refined freshness with chalky notes.

Robert Parker - Wine Advocate

RVF - La Revue du Vin de France / Guide des Meilleurs Vins de France

About wine:

Spécial Cuvée expresses both a beautiful vinous patina and a savory richness, while retaining its dynamism.

About the estate:

If there is one brand with a strong personality and highly recognizable style, it is Bollinger. This family-owned house in Aÿ produces wines with a strong Pinot Noir influence that are full-bodied, deep, and subtly aged. Bollinger has an incredibly rich history. It is a benchmark house that is always at the forefront of innovation. The quality of its older vintages is testament to this commitment to excellence, passed down from generation to generation. The character and vinosity of these gourmet champagnes remain exemplary.

James Suckling

Jeb Dunnuck

About wine:

The Champagne Special Cuvée NV opens with a bright yellow/silver hue and reveals a fresh and actually more mineral profile than I expected on the nose, revealing layers of fresh raspberries, brioche, wet stone, and orange blossom. The palate is medium-bodied to full-bodied and classically rounded, as one would expect from this house, but it retains good tension and a silky, chalky texture, with ultra-fine mousse, salinity in its notes of grapefruit zest and almond, and a creamy texture on the finish. This is a very stylish wine that will drink very well over the next ten years. They always try to have 8 to 10 vintages in the blend, the oldest being 18 years old (15 years when bottled).