World Champagne Day is today. Here’s the best Champagne I’ve tried this year to celebrate:
The Bollinger La Côte aux Enfants 2013 wasn’t the reason why a pack of trade and media had slipped into a very private dining room at one of Sydney’s storied members-only clubs. Instead, we were there to look at the latest release of Bollinger’s Blanc de Noirs PN series wth sixth-generation Bollinger family member Cyril Delarue.
Cyril, on his first trip to Australia, had secured a whole swag of Bollinger magnums (because any wine is better in magnum) to pour for this event too.
Magnums and private clubs = we’re definitely in Champagne territory.
When I wandered into the cosseted private hallways of The Pillars club on Barrack St in Sydney, I certainly felt like I needed a coat (and a lot more cash). Although life felt much more familiar when I sat down and discovered Bruce Tyrrell in the next chair.
That’s not who I would normally sit next to at a Champagne masterclass.
Bruce is a great Bollinger customer, apparently, although I feel like he subtly scored an invite here as much for some lunch banter as anything else (Bruce is good value). Anyway, there was Bruce, a pack of top somms, hoteliers, retailers, wordsmiths, and several vintages of very serious Blanc de Noirs Champagne
We’re now six instalments deep into this Bollinger PN series, and these are indeed dead serious wines, even in the detail-heavy world of Champagne. Each wine in this lineup is an expression of sparkling Pinot Noir grapes from a specific cru. The plots change each season, with each release a new blend, typically made up of 75-80% of a particular vintage wine and then 20-25% of reserve material (kept in magnums). Half the blend is matured in barrels, half in stainless steel, and notably, the lees ageing is not excessive – four years on average.
Interestingly, Bollinger now boasts over one million magnums of reserve wine. These magnums are used ‘like spice’, as Cyril explains, delivering ‘emotion and complexity’ which sounds even more romantic in polished French-accented English. Another tidbit that Cyril revealed is how much Australia overindexes on Bollinger – now the #4 market for Bollinger, behind the UK, France, Italy (and above the US). Also, the estate vineyards now have full organic certification (completed this year).
Anyway, enough digressing, let’s look at some Champagne.
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