The Champagne Club Awards’24 [blanc de noirs of the year]
Blanc de Noirs, Bollinger, The Champagne Club Awards
Champagne Club
Or shall we call it ‘The Richards’ ?! Instead of ‘The Champagne Oscars’ ? We want to sum-up the year of 2024 from a Champagne perspective. In 20+ categories we hand out awards for this years most memorable Champagnes & Champagne related topics!
mv Selosse ’Bout du Clos d’Ambonnay’ [ base ’06 – dérgorgement may’18 ]
2014 Bollinger ’Vieilles Vignes Françaises’
99(99)p
aprox €2,000
« From Champagne’s ungrafted vines, Bollinger Vieilles Vignes Françaises 2014 is now launched »
Richard Juhlin
Vieilles Vignes Françaises : the eternal taste and soul of Champagne
The Vieilles Vignes Françaises are intrinsically linked with Champagne Bollinger’s history. In the ungrafted vines, there is a memory that was almost lost: an extraordinary, moving reminder of our cultural heritage, of the Champagne region before phylloxera. Miraculously, two plots survived this outbreak, Chaudes Terres and Clos Saint-Jacques in Aÿ. Maison Bollinger’s Vieilles Vignes Françaises are made exclusively from these legendary parcels.
Both are classified as Grand Cru and are still grown in the old en foule way, using a traditional layering method known as provignage.This technique, which has been meticulously passed down, helped Maison Bollinger achieve the label Entreprise du PatrimoineVivant (Living Heritage Company or EPV) in 2012, an official recognition for French companies that demonstrate exceptional artisanal and industrial expertise.
TASTING NOTE Champagne Club by Richard Juhlin – ‘How long will we be able to enjoy this treasure? You are well aware that the phylloxera louse can any day crawl under the gate and in a flash destroy the two fragile slabs of Clos Saint-Jacques and Clos Chaudes-Terres in Aÿ. This impermanence makes the wine even more treasured and unique, as if its stratospheric quality weren’t reason enough to hold the world’s finest Blanc de Noirs in high esteem. Tasted directly after the mellow La Côte aux Enfants from the same vintage, I was prepared for VVF to be beaten for the first time by its sibling wine from the same village. When I finished tasting it was clear that I had just tasted the perfect champagne in its style.
The champagne combines the honeyed concentration of a Château d´Yquem with the buttery nutty power and sophisticated richness of a Montrachet from Comte Lafon. But my God, Juhlin, it’s Pinot Noir. Yes, but the fabulous creation is more reminiscent of the mentioned wines than of a big red Burgundy this time. I don’t really know why 2014 was so perfect for Bollinger. Perhaps one has become even more skilled at maneuvering all the details that give a perfect VVF, or does the old theory apply that naturally masculine Bollinger is often at its best in slightly lighter and elegant vintages? In any case, this is a colossal wine experience!
The wine belongs to the small few who act with such self-evident weight that comments and comparisons feel redundant. The color is deep golden and the extremely small bubbles move slowly up through the glass. The bouquet is rich, dense and powerful like a rumbling thunderstorm in the distance. Filled with honey and hazelnut essence and screaming scent of honeysuckle. In the mouth you are met by an oily and creamy essence of dark fruit, 70% chocolate from Domori and licorice with the same grilled lemons and apricot marmalade I find in all Bollinger’s wines from 2014. Monumental, long, dense and unreal wide like a parade street in Buenos Aires. Drink soon or wait ten years for the next phase. Just as with La Côte aux Enfants, there is a high risk of tunnel behavior for a few years.’
The most colorful person in the history of the house is his widow, Lily Bollinger, who kept a watchful eye on every bunch of grapes by cycling through the vineyards regularly. Her rigorous demands for quality still run through the house to this day.
Now Bollinger is run by Charles-Armand de Belenet, who control over 178 hectares, (104 with pinot noir) providing 70 percent of the grape supply. Most of of the wines are Selection Massalle no 386 planted in the twenties. The winemaker today is the wonderful “terroirist” Denis Bunner. Besides the house’s exceptional vineyards, they also use very expensive vinification methods. All the vintage wines are fermented in small, aged oak barrels and are never filtered. Malolactic fermentation—which would probably take place very late in the process—is not encouraged either. The reserve wines are stored at low pressure in magnums.
‘Bollinger make the heaviest and most full-bodied champagnes of any house, and their wines always have a smoky and hazelnuty complexity that is very hard to beat.’
Richard Juhlin
The new PN, La Grande Année and R.D are among the very best, but it is clear that the rare and fantastic Vieilles Vignes Françaises, made with grapes from non-grafted Pinot vines, can reach even greater heights. All wines highly recommended.
‘One of the few perfect champagne houses and a beautiful gift to mankind.’
