Champagne Bollinger, founded in 1829, is one of Champagne’s few remaining family-owned Grande Marque houses. Located in Ay, in the heart of the Côte des Noirs, it is renowned for the high percentage of Pinot Noir it uses and for the extra aging on the lees that its Champagnes receive.
98+ Points William Kelley (Wine Advocate)
Disgorged in March 2023 with six grams per liter dosage, Bollinger’s 2012 Blanc de Noirs Vieilles Vignes Françaises is a powerful, multidimensional Champagne that pushes the house’s vinous, Pinot Noir-driven style to the furthest. Offering up rich aromas of orange rind, mandarin oil, grilled peaches, dried fruits and pear mingled with notions of nutmeg, beeswax, smoke and buttered toast, it’s full-bodied, broad and layered, with a deep, enveloping core endowed with extraordinary texture and concentration, its broad attack and mid-palate segueing into a long, resonant finish. If the 2013 vintage tended to tame some of the Vieilles Vignes Françaises’s exuberance, the 2012 vintage leaves this cuvée untrammeled.