Bollinger "B16" Brut Champagne 2016
(Champagne, France) - [JS 96] [WE 95] [WA 94] [VM 93] [DM 93]

About the Winery:
Since 1829, Bollinger has been producing great Champagnes with a powerful, sophisticated and complex style. In 2006, the prestigious French wine magazine La Revue du Vin de France surveyed the most significant group of sommeliers and wine writers to help select the top 50 Champagne Houses. This would be regarded as the flag-bearer for the greatness of Champagne as a unique wine region. Bollinger was selected as the Number #1 House by this group. 

With 399 acres of vineyards situated in the best Grands Crus and Premiers Crus villages, Bollinger relies on its own estate for nearly two-thirds of its grape requirements, including the Pinot Noir that gives its Champagne its distinctive roundness and elegance.

About this Wine:
Born from an atypical year of contrasting weather conditions, 2016, B16 is a daring creation composed of more than 70% Pinot Noir and explores the unique aroma profiles to be found in the terroirs of the Montagne de Reims.

VARIETY: 73% Pinot Noir, 27% Chardonnay

VINEYARD: Exclusively made from Grands and Premiers Crus, focusing on the latest-ripening areas of the Montagne de Reims.

VINTAGE: A cold and rainy spring followed by a hot, sunny summer. The vine’s demands required the team’s full dedication, before yielding grapes with a unique palette of aromas.

AGING: Seven years on the lees, riddled and disgorged by hand

DOSAGE: 4 g/l

Ratings & Reviews

96 Points - James Suckling:
"A sophisticated champagne with extremely refined character and linear phenolics that give it length and class. It's medium-bodied with grapefruit and apples as well as pie crust. Bright acidity at the end. A blend of 72% pinot noir and 28% chardonnay. Dosage 4 g/L. Drink or hold." (Jul 2025)

95 Points - Wine Enthusiast:
"Precision and purity come through in aromas of white peach, white florals, bergamot and a subtle touch of yeast. The palate is finely textured and effortless, delivering ripe orchard fruit with clarity and a fine chalky impression on the finish. Seamless, refined and dissapears way too quickly in the glass. Stock up." - Anna-Christina Cabrales (Apr 2026)

94 Points - Wine Advocate:
"From a relatively cool, mildew-pressured year that did not deliver sufficient fruit for Aÿ to serve as the principal component—and thus precluded the making of La Grande Année—Bollinger instead opted to release the 2016 B16. Disgorged in November 2024 with a dosage of four grams per liter, the wine unwinds in the glass with aromas of yellow apple, mirabelle plum, honeysuckle and bergamot mingled with freshly baked bread and a faint hint of passion fruit. Full-bodied and elegantly muscular, the palate offers a rich, sweet core of fruit, racy acids and an animating pinpoint mousse, concluding with a long, enveloping finish. Vinified entirely in barrels, it comprises 27% Chardonnay and 73% Pinot Noir—principally from Bouzy, Tauxières, Verzy and Verzenay—and will reward additional aging on cork. – Kristaps Karklins (Mar 2026)

93 Points - Vinous Media:
"The 2016 B 16 is a small bottling from Bollinger that takes the place of the Grand Année, as conditions did not allow Bollinger to bottle their flagship cuveé. Brisk floral top notes give this mid-weight, expressive Champagne a good deal of immediacy. The blend is 73% Pinot Noir and 27% Chardonnay, with the Chardonnay very much in evidence. Dosage is 4 grams per liter. Disgorged: November 2024. (Drink between 2025-2032)." - Antonio Galloni (Nov 2025)

93 Points - Decanter Magazine:
"In 2013, Bollinger did not release a Grande Année but did offer its B13, a single-vintage take on a year considered atypical for the Bollinger style. The concept is repeated in the tricky but ultimately fine quality 2016 harvest with the B16. It presents a relatively delicate, cool and understated vintage relative to the Grande Année. The ripeness of the Pinot Noir is certainly present in the juicy stewed apricot and fresh raspberry fruit, but Chardonnay here brings gentle orchard fruit and fresh grapefruit zest beneath subtle richness of toasted nut and oyster shell complexity from ageing. While Grande Année offers more intensity and drama, and the latest PN series offers dynamism and youthful energy, B16 is perfectly pitched between smooth maturity and approachable brightness, all at a temptingly moderate premium over the non-vintage cuvée. (Drink between 2025-2032)." - Tom Hewson (Nov 2025)