Following lunch, we drove from Monchenot to Ay to visit the house of Bollinger. On the way, we learnt that the vines that create the patches of brown in the landscape are Pinot and the yellower ones are Chardonnay. We’re very fortunate to be here at this time, where such a distinction can be made. In summer, it is a sea of green and in winter the vines are indistinguishably bare.
Our host at Bollinger, Caroline, began by explaining that Ay is the historical heart of Champagne. As the site first planted by the Romans, the nearby villages take their names from proximity to this village, Épernay meant after Ay and Avenay before Ay.
Bollinger’s vast 164ha of vineyard holdings is unique and give the house strength, and it remains private to this day. Despite the vast area, it still buys in grapes as so is classified as négociant, producing 3m bottles per year. If Bollinger reduced volumes to produce solely from their own vineyards they would be the largestrécoltant-manipulant by far.
Following this introduction, we were shown Bollinger’s unique teaching vineyards, which does not produce any fruit for wine, but does have all permitted varieties of the region. It has Arbanne, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, 2 clones of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay & Pinot Meunier. Finally, it also includes Gouais Blanc, a white grape and Pinot Tienturnier, a red-fleshed variety, not currently permitted but important historically.
We walked around the two walled vineyards, *Clos Saint Jacques* and *Clos Chaude de Terre* (hot earth) that produce the blanc de noirs *Vielle Vigne Francaise* (VVF), one of the world’s rarest wines. These vineyards are yet to be infected by the phylloxera louse that struck champagne in 1884 and caused all vines to be regrafted onto resistant American rootstock. These vines are still on their original *Vitis vinifera* rootstock and are over 100 years old, planted en foule using traditional straw tie techniques.
The high density planting (25,000 vines/ha) and their age means impossibly small yields but incredibly intense fruit that require no added sugar at dosage There were only 5 barrels (~1000L) from the entire 2014 vintage. To see these plots was at the top of my list for this trip so it was just amazing!
Every village, every plot and every variety is vinified separately using micro-vinification. This obsession is painstaking work for the winery staff but gives this chef de cave infinite sources from which to create his wines. Care in the vineyard is important too. The house strives to improve the biological health of each site to increase worms and thus soil aeration, which improves the root depth of the vines and the minerality of the sap that feeds the grapes.
Vinification may be in old Beaune casks (average age of 45 years) with some 400L casks made at the turn of the 20th century. You need a powerful, low-pH wine to go into oak, which help develop structure and complexity. Each barrel is branded with a village and identified by barcodes. Bollinger large wood requirements mean they require a cooper on site, the last house to have one. His role is predominantly maintenance of the barrel stock and we saw his workshop where he uses traditional tools and techniques.
Dad – these photos are for you. The current cooper will be around for a few years, but he’s the last one in the region, so if you’re after a retirement gig, I’ve got the contacts.
Uniquely, Bollinger stores its Grand Cru village reserve wines (those used to create a consistent non-vintage style across the years) in magnum as opposed to stainless steel. A few grams of sugar are added to produce Carbon Dioxide and protect the reserve wines, which are stoppered with cork. There are 700,000 magnums waiting up to 12 years to be used, but some date back to 1904. All this work for the NV Special Cuvée is amazing.
Bollinger’s non-vintage has 40-50% reserve wines giving it a powerful and rounded style. When this wine is created, each of the different reserve magnums are tasted. If the chef de cave needs violet or apricot he’ll know exactly where to look.
The Special Cuvée will have 3-5 years on lees whereas Bollinger’s vintage civée, La Grande Année has 6-8 years. In the cellars, we passed the 2009 Grand Annee which is being created for the next Bond instalment. We tasted both these wines, as well as a rosé non-vintage. No prizes for guessing which I preferred.
We had hoped to taste the “Recently Disgorged” product that Bollinger makes but production of the “RD” depends on the vintage and is limited. I think we did pretty well and headed back to Épernay for dinner at La Banque (not that we needed it).
warrellwine 