Credits: Article and images by Ken Gargett @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/06/18/bollinger-la-grande-annee-2015-the-excellence-of-a-great-vintage/
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Bollinger is famous for their use of magnums for reserve wines (not that they are relevant to the vintage releases), and they have some 800,000 magnums of reserves in their cellars.
Bunner, advised that they will not be making any decision until the end of the year, but that it is unlikely there will be a 2015 RD.
In 2015, Denis, who had been with the CIVC, worked with former chef de cave Gilles Descotes, who so sadly passed away in 2023 (he relinquished his duties in 2022). Denis took over from Gilles, so while he was not in control for the vintage, he was certainly heavily involved.
In the lead-up to harvesting for the 2015 vintage, Denis noticed green characters in a lot of the ’15 samples they were seeing. It was a hot vintage – the hottest and driest ever recorded in Champagne – but even so, Denis felt many producers picked too early and hence the evidence of green notes. They waited and the result has been to avoid any vegetal notes and has undoubtedly resulted in a better wine. As he said, they got the expression of fruit they were searching for.
The team at Bollinger have described that as highlighting the texture, but both the La Grande Annee and the La Grande Annee Rose from 2015 “exhibit sensory and emotional qualities that echo the theme of the forest and the woodland realm, a realm which imparted structure and precision to both cuvées during the time they spent maturing in oak casks.“ For them, “wood becomes the grain running through both the Grande Année and Grande Année Rosé”.
Denis has said of the 2015, that it “expresses more of the soul of a Bollinger millésimé than any other year. More opulent, more powerful, it exalts Pinot Noir. Uplifted by maturation in wooden casks, this champagne reveals the characteristics of an exceptional year.”
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Credits: Article and images by Ken Gargett @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/06/18/bollinger-la-grande-annee-2015-the-excellence-of-a-great-vintage/