🍾 Bollinger

Bollinger is a Champagne house in Aÿ, in the Marne department. According to the house, the firm Renaudin-Bollinger & Cie was founded here on 6 February 1829 by the landowner Athanase de Villermont, the wine merchant Joseph (Jacques) Bollinger and Paul Renaudin, who ran the cellar. The house describes itself as one of the last family houses in Champagne.

According to the house, it owns 180 ha of vineyards, 85% of them grands and premiers crus, and grows most of the grapes for its blends itself; Pinot Noir makes up more than 60% of the plantings. Reserve wines are kept in magnums. The main cuvées are Special Cuvée, Bollinger Rosé, La Grande Année and R.D.; the rare Vieilles Vignes Françaises comes from ungrafted vines in two plots in Aÿ that phylloxera spared.

Champagne is a wine with a protected designation of origin (PDO). The bubbles come only from a second fermentation in the bottle, the wine is aged for at least 15 months before sale (36 for vintage), and all production takes place only within the delimited area. The house says it ages its wines on the lees two to three times longer than this minimum. Bollinger is a brand; Champagne is the name of a place.

Why it matters to you. On the label, the terms brut, millésime (vintage) and blanc de blancs are set by the rules, while names such as “Special Cuvée” or “La Grande Année” are the house’s own designations. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.