Collection: Bollinger

Bollinger is a French Champagne house, a producer of sparkling wines from the Champagne region. They produce several labels of Champagne under the Bollinger name, including the vintage Vieilles Vignes Françaises, Grande Année and R.D. as well as the non-vintage Special Cuvée. Founded in 1829 in Aÿ by Hennequin de Villermont, Paul Renaudin and Jacques Bollinger, the house continues to be run by members of the Bollinger family.

This Champagne house rose to popularity in the mid-20th century under Lily Bollinger, who once said: “I drink Champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it unless I'm thirsty.”

Bollinger is one of the few remaining independent Champagne houses. Family-managed since 1889, Bollinger maintains more than 150 hectares of vineyards. It currently produces the following sparkling wines:

• Special Cuvée (non-vintage): The Bollinger house style. This Champagne blend uses grapes from a given year, with the addition of reserve wines. Champagne author Tom Stevenson describes the house style as "classic, Pinot-dominated Champagnes of great potential longevity and complexity" which "tends to go toasty."  The blend includes up to 10% reserve wines, which may be up to fifteen years old. Special Cuvée are aged in the lees for at least five years before release. (Composition: 60% Pinot noir, 25% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Meunier.)
• Grande Année (vintage): this Champagne is also available as a rosé. The wine spends five years on its lees and is aged in bottle under cork, instead of crown seal. (Composition: 65% Pinot noir, 35% Chardonnay.)
• R.D. (vintage): it spends at least eight years on its lees, and like the Grand Année, is aged under cork, not crown seal. R.D. is a registered trademark of Bollinger which stands for récemment dégorgé ("recently disgorged"). In the mid-1990s, Bollinger sold Année Rare, which was an R.D. that had undergone longer aging on the lees.
• Vieille Vignes Françaises (vintage): a blanc de noirs is made in small quantity with wine from two small plots of ungrafted rootstock planted in low density. The English wine writer Cyril Ray suggested the idea of using the ungrafted vines to produce a separate wine to Madame Bollinger in the 1960s. The first vintage was 1969. Vieille Vignes refers to how the vines are trained rather than the age of the rootstock. The low-density vineyards, Clos St-Jacques in Aÿ and Chaudes Terres in Aÿ, are severely pruned, and produce 35% less juice per vine, creating a "super rich wine." In 2005, phylloxera destroyed the third vineyard used for this wine, Croix Rouge in Bouzy.
• Coteaux Champenois La Côte aux Enfants (vintage): This still red wine is produced from grapes grown on the south-facing slope of the 100% echelle vineyard, the Côte aux Enfants in Aÿ