Champagne Bollinger

Since 1829, the Bollinger family has been producing great Champagnes with a powerful, refined and complex style, in which the expression of fruit aromas emerges in all its dimensions.
The Bollinger style. Bollinger stands for an inimitable style, recognised as such by great wine lovers and based on five characteristics: its own vineyards, Pinot Noir, reserve wines in magnum bottles, oak barrels and time.

An exceptional vineyard. Over the years, Bollinger has built up its vineyards in the heart of the best sites in the Champagne region. The house's 179 hectares of vineyards consist of 85% Grands and Premiers Crus and are cultivated by the house's viticultural teams on 7 different vineyards. Bollinger is one of the few houses in Champagne that cultivates most of the grapes used for its blends itself.

Pinot Noir. Today, Pinot Noir, grown around the Montagne de Reims, accounts for over 60% of Bollinger's vineyards. This is exactly the proportion it also occupies in the blend of the Spécial Cuvée! Its exceptionally high proportion in the blends is a hallmark of the Bollinger style, to which it lends power, body and vinosity.

Vinification in wood. Since 1829, Champagne Bollinger has always aged its best wines in oak barrels. It possesses the largest collection of barriques in Champagne, with 4000 pieces, consisting of "fûts" and "pipes," some of which are over a hundred years old. A true treasure that the house meticulously maintains to ensure its longevity. New barrels are never used, as they would alter the aromas of the precious wines. Each barrel originates from Burgundy, where it had a first life.An invaluable treasure:the reserve magnums. Each year, a portion of the best wines from the last harvest is set aside for aging. However, instead of storing reserve wines in large fermentation tanks, where they could wait for three to five years, Bollinger bottles them in magnums, wine by wine, vintage by vintage. They then become part of the more than 800,000 reserve magnums that have been maturing in the cellars for five, ten, twelve years...The luxury of time. The significance of time at Bollinger only truly becomes clear when one descends into the underground world of the wine cellars. Firstly, all wines are aged on their lees for two to three times longer than legally required in Champagne, allowing the wine to develop and gain complexity. It is this long resting period that imparts this rare delicacy to the aromas and a velvety texture to the bubbles.

Elisabeth Bollinger: The soul of Bollinger for over 80 years... Madame Bollinger took over the management of the house after her husband's death in 1941, leading it until 1971. The circumstances of the war made her task very difficult. After the war, she brought Bollinger back to success by traveling the world to promote the brand. She would leave a profound mark on the history of Bollinger and especially of Champagne. You surely knowthis quote from Madame Bollinger: "I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. I consider it my duty when I have company. I play with it when I don't have an appetite, and I drink it when I'm hungry. Otherwise, I never touch it, unless I'm thirsty." Madame Elisabeth Bollinger in the London Daily Mail, October 17, 1961