A New Grande Année
I get excited every time a new vintage of Bollinger arrives, as I believe they are one of the most consistently top-quality producers in all of Champagne for vintage wine. So, when the 2012 Bollinger "Grande Année" Brut Champagne arrived last week, I wasted no time in trying it. Cinnamon had made a beautiful appetizer of smoked salmon with crème fraîche for our Valentine's Day aperitif, and we cracked open this 2012 to go with it.
La Grande Année is always all estate-grown from Grand and Premier cru sites and entirely barrel fermented. It is also aged on the lees on cork rather than crown cap for a minimum of six years every time. The 2012 is composed of 2/3 Pinot Noir, largely from Ay and Verzenay Grand Cru and 1/3 of Chardonnay, mainly from Mesnil and Oiry Grand Cru. They used slightly more Chardonnay than usual, but this in no way detracts from chalky, black cherry Ay soul of the Champagne.
2012 remains the only vintage that I have experienced in Champagne that the producers allowed themselves to get excited about early. Even great vintages like 2002 and 2008 were described in measured terms by the Champenois when I arrived to taste them as vin clair in the spring of 2003 and 2009. The vintage itself was challenging, to say the least. The summer was wet, and hailstorms destroyed the crop in many pockets of the region, but a golden fall saved what looked to be a disaster. The vineyards even benefited from a slight drop in temperatures under consistently sunny skies during harvest, leaving good acidity in nicely ripened grapes. This Bollinger should prove to be one of the finest wines from this consistently good vintage.
The 2012 Bollinger "Grande Année" had lovely, subtle pie crust and Meyer lemon curd on the nose and in the mouth. The power of the Grand Cru Ay Pinot Noir was here for sure, with lots of the dark cherry fruit and vivid, crisp, chalky cut. As always, the barrel work is deft here, and I could not taste the oak at all, but rather just the fine toast from the long aging on the lees. The finish is the most impressive aspect of this wine now, with the creaminess of the top-quality Chardonnay only coming to the front after swallowing the wine. This is long finishing stuff, with plenty of richness.
These 2012s should age very well, but I also think that they should drink great in the near term—a fine way to keep one’s hands off one’s 2008s. This Bollinger will certainly keep for more than a generation and improve unambiguously for more than a decade. I hope that I will have some left to see if I am right… It went a little too well with the salmon to be disciplined with!
A toast to you!
Gary Westby