Bollinger
La Grande Annee Rose
Champagne
2012

The producer

Bollinger has made amazing steps to improve their wines over the last twenty years or more. These changes start in their large vineyard holdings in the communes surrounding their base in Ay. With a wealth of Grand and Premier Cru vineyards in the most respected villages, and a dominance of Pinot Noir in all their wines, all the elements are in place for something very special.

100% of vintage and reserve wines are barrel-fermented, which adds texture, complexity, and balance. NV wines have a minimum of three years on lees and vintage wines now at least eight years. Bollinger is a house continually on the move.

The wine

La Grande Annee Rose is based on vintage champagne – derived from 19 crus, mostly in Ay and Verzenay for the Pinot Noir, and Chouilly and Oiry for the Chardonnay – to which is added 5% red wine, vinified in small oak barrels, from the Cote aux Enfants vineyard. Fermentation of the champagne takes place entirely in oak barrels. The ageing last almost 10 years, and the dosage is only 8 grams. This is wonderfully rich and complex wine with layers of red fruit generosity, creamy effervescence, and a long succulent finish.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.