Bollinger Special Cuvee Champagne (Champagne, France) [6.0 L] - [DM 96] [JD 93] [WS 92] [JS 92] [RP 91]

Bollinger Special Cuvee Champagne
(Champagne, France) [6.0 L] - [DM 96] [JD 93] [WS 92] [JS 92] [RP 91]


Regular price $2,000.00 Sale price $1,224.99 Save $775.01
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DM96 JD93 WS92 JS92 RP91
Size
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About this wine:
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. 

Their dry, toasty style is instantly recognizable, as six generations of the Bollinger family have maintained that trademark style. Bollinger is one of the rare Grande Marque houses to be owned, controlled and managed by the same family since it was founded.


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.

Notes from the Winemaker:
The denomination Special Cuvee was created in 1911. The idea came from William Folks, then partner of the illustrious London House of Mentzendorff. This great wine lover felt it was an insult to simply call this great wine "non vintage". The suggestion of naming it "Special Cuvee" was immediately approved by Monsieur Bollinger.

A blend par excellence, the Special Cuvee is the purest expression of the Bollinger style; of its craftsmanship and its singular conception of what a champagne should be. It is, therefore, on this wine that the House of Bollinger shows how it is different from other Champagne Houses, asserts its qualitative policy and by which it asks to be judged.


Ratings & Reviews

96 Points - Decanter Magazine:
“60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, 15% Meunier sourced from more than 300 crus, including 85% grands and premiers crus; 15% fermented in old oak barrels. The complexity and richness of Special Cuvée is unparalleled among the entry non-vintage blends of every Champagne house. Its grand recipe explains why, built on incredible depth of 50%-60% reserves. Triumphant complexity is a given at Bollinger, but it’s the dynamic freshness and vitality that really set it apart as one of the most affordable Champagne benchmarks.” - Tyson Stelzer

93 Points - Jeb Dunnuck:
"Bollinger’s NV Special Cuvée knocks it out of the park. Made from 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and the rest Pinot Meunier, with 30% of the blend brought up in barrels, it boasts a rich, deep, medium to full-bodied style as well as terrific notes of lemon curd, crème brûlée, caramelized stone fruits, and hints of toasty nuttiness that develop with time in the glass. It’s a big, rich Champagne that stays balanced and pure. Beautiful stuff." - Jeb Dunnuck (03/15/2018)

92 Points - Wine Spectator Magazine:
"Bright, almost crunchy acidity and the finely detailed mousse carry an expressive mix of poached apricot and cherry fruit, toast point, orange peel and ground ginger flavors in this firm, focused Champagne, with a graphite-laced, minerally finish. Drink now through 2022." – AN (Nov 15, 2018)

92 Points - James Suckling:
"Trademark Bollinger complexity with apples, brioche and grapefruit in a very subtly reductive style. The palate is super fine, even and elegant with a refreshing lemon, lime, light-berry and apple-brioche finish. Drink now." (19 Jul, 2018)

91 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate:
"Disgorged six months ago, the latest rendition of the NV Brut Special Cuvee was bottled in 2015, and while its core derives from the 2014 vintage, it contains fully 60% reserve wines. The wine wafts from the glass with a classic bouquet of apples, pear, walnut oil and clear honey, followed by a medium to full-bodied palate that's broad-shouldered and Pinot Noir-driven, with a pinpoint mousse, nice tension at the core and a delicately chalky finish. Gilles Descotes commented that one of his biggest challenges is finding enough wine raised in wood to make the Special Cuvee in years where Grande Annee is produced - and to that end, Bollinger is significantly expanding its barrel program to ferment even more base wine in used oak." - William Kelley (Apr 2019)