2014 Champagne Bollinger, La Grande Année, Brut

Bollinger’s 2014 La Grande Année is a great way to start the evening as guests mill around Wheeler Farms. It is early evening in Napa, but there is still plenty of action in the winery, where various lots are being pressed under the watchful eye of winemaker Nigel Kinsman. There are some moments where I would very much like to be a civilian, a regular person enjoying the night, but I am more concerned with our guests having a great night, so I quickly go back to check on our wines. The Bollinger 2014 is everything I expected; bright, focused and full of all the energy this late-ripening vintage conferred to the best wines.

Drink 2024 - 2044

Offering up complex aromas of crisp yellow orchard fruit, confit citrus, frangipane, walnuts, dried white flowers and subtle hints of iodine, Bollinger's 2014 Brut La Grande Année is medium to full-bodied, pillowy and vinous, with an elegantly fleshy core of fruit that's underpinned by racy acids and complemented by a pretty pinpoint mousse.

Concluding with a long, chalky finish, this is a charming but precise Grande Année that's more giving and demonstrative than its immediate predecessor, the 2012, but which attains a very similar level of quality in a more challenging vintage—testimony to the serious viticulture that underpins Bollinger's contemporary excellence.

Drink 2021 - 2045

The 2014 is very closely linked to the cold vintages, which express the characteristics of the different terroirs, the soil, and therefore the minerality. This is a vintage of contrasts, with one of the hottest Junes in the last 50 years, but a very cool August, resulting in slow ripening.

We harvested from 15 September, for two weeks, which makes it one of our shortest harvests. The most important thing for us was to manage the ripeness in order to obtain the best possible sorting window. A blend of 61% Pinot Noir and 39% Chardonnay, this 2014 La Grande Année is from 19 villages, all grands and premiers crus, with 23% coming from Verzenay and 18% from Aÿ. It was aged for six months in small barrels. It has fresh and distinctive notes of lemon, herbs, red berries and gooseberries, and a splendid calcareous frame.

The palate is mineral, tense and elegant with a dense structure, a perfectly balanced texture, fine bubbles, and a lingering finish.

Drink 2022 - 2035