On November 8, a limited edition of Bollinger PNVZ19 will be launched in Systembolaget’s temporary range. [read the full champagne story]
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
600 bottles of the 2019 vintage will be available. PNVZ19 is a 100% Pinot Noir with base vintage from Verzenay, an area of the Montagne de Reims known for producing Pinot Noir with great complexity and structure.
PNVZ19 is the fifth release in Bollinger’s PN series, with each release focusing on a specific village’s terroir and distinctive character of Pinot Noir. To create a balanced champagne in line with Bollinger’s signature, grapes from Aÿ, Avenay, Louvois, Mutigny and Tauxières are added. The PN series is created to show the different expressions the Pinot Noir grape can give depending on the cru and terroir. This release shows power and structure with an elegant balance and low dosage (4 g/l) to highlight the wine’s aromas and minerality.
Winemaking and storage
To highlight the complexity offered by Verzenay’s terroir, some of the wine is fermented in small old oak barrels, adding additional structure and depth of flavor. The house adds 25% reserve wine from the house’s 800,000 magnum bottles. The magnum bottles are stored on their lees for up to 15 years and thus give a lot of power, complexity and maturity. The oldest wine in the cuvée is from 2009 and the wine has been on the lees more than twice as long as the appellation requires, the dosage is 6 grams per liter. This winemaking method, combined with a long time on the lees, is a hallmark of Bollinger and contributes to creating a wine with both power and finesse.
Flavor profile of Bollinger PNVZ19
‘Bollinger PNVZ19 has a golden color. The aroma is rich and expressive with notes of fruit from the orchard, red berries and exotic fruit notes. The 2019 vintage provides a full and elegant flavor palette with the fresh acidity of Granny Smith apples, lively citrus notes, peach and blood orange, finished with a mineral saltiness – a perfect reflection of Verzenay’s terroir and elegance.’
Bollinger
Tasting note Champagne Club by Rchard Juhlin
Bollinger PNVZ19
95(93)p
100 PN
Unsurprisingly, the 2019 base year with its richness once again received mineral-influenced Verzenay (40%) as the base terroir when Aÿ produced slightly too rich wines. The reserve wines on the magnum once again go all the way down to the tasty 2009 vintage all from Verzenay. Aÿ, Louvois, Bisseuil, Avenay, Tours-sur-Marne, Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and Mutigny stand for the background chords.
Currently, the champagne charms through its complex and youthfully energetic bouquet of peach peel, gooseberry, cox orange apples, sea buckthorn, geranium and marigolds.
Richard Juhlin
The texture is at the same time softly ripe and velvety. The breadth of flavours is magnificently orchestrated and each new sip brings additional aromas at hand. The potential alcohol content was record high from the start especially in Aÿ with 11.1 % straight away and Denis, just like me, sees great similarities between 2015 and 2019, but where the sharpness and freshness is better in 2019. It is not the acidity but rather the mineral salt that gives the freshness together with the sense of umami the concentrated grapes give. Here there is a swirl of exotic fruit and honey, but also a dry smokiness that I’ve learned to associate with the cluster of aromas that transforms over time into the note of railway on a hot summer’s day. It might sound fuzzy, but it actually makes perfect sense.
The combination of heated rail, dry gravel, dandelions and nettles that thrive in the embankment gives a concentrated warm dryness that is strongly reminiscent of the character the grapes acquire when the temperature crosses the vine’s pain point on a few hot summer days. 41 degrees in the shade was a heat record in Champagne and especially a lot of shade, the vineyards in Champagne cannot boast of so the effect is reminiscent of that which arose in 1947, 1959, 1976 and 2003. Hence this aroma albeit less marked in 2019. Let’s see if I’m right in 10 years when I expect that “the famous note of Railroad track” will appear in this beauty.
PN VZ19 is tasted with great pleasure and intellectual challenge straight away, but personally, as usual, I will wait as long as I can before opening my own bottles to get the increasing depth of butter-fried cepp and toasted hazelnut aromas that only aging can provide.
Richard Juhlin
600 bottles of Bollinger PNVZ19 will be launched on November 8 with number 95374 and the price is SEK 1099.
Bollinger PNVZ19 Magnum – web launch November 28th
For collectors and enthusiasts, a very limited edition Bollinger PNVZ19 Magnum will also be released on November 28. Only 60 magnum bottles will be available via Systembolaget’s web launch at a price of SEK 2,399. The magnum format provides additional storage potential and enables an even deeper development of the wine’s complex flavors and aromas.
