Bollinger champagne

Bollinger champagne

Champagne Bollinger (French pronunciation: [bɔ.lɛ̃.ʒe]) is a champagne house that produces sparkling wines in and from the Champagne wine-growing region in France. Various products are sold by the house under the name Bollinger, including Vieille Vignes Francaises, Grande Année and RD as well as a special cuvée. In 1829 the house in Aÿ was founded by Athanase-Louis-Emmanuel Hennequin, Paul Renaudin and Joseph Jacob Bollinger and has been continuously run by family members of the Bollingers ever since. At least since the successful British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous , champagne has also been known under the abbreviation “Bolly”.

history

Bollinger has roots in Champagne that go back to 1585 when the Hennequins, one of the founding families, owned land in Cramant. The Hennequin de Villermonts were already producing wine in the 18th century ; but not under her family name. In 1750 the Villermonts moved to Rue Jules Lobet No. 16, which would later become Bollinger's main office. 1803 Jacob Joseph Placidus (French: Jacques Joseph Placide) Bollinger was born in Ellwangen (Jagst), Germany. In 1822 he moved to the Champagne region and began working for the Muller Ruinart champagne house , which no longer exists. Many Germans settled in Champagne during this time, including Johann-Joseph Krug and the Heidsiecks , who founded the house that later became Charles Heidsieck, Piper Heidsieck, Heidsieck & Co Monopole, Veuve Clicquot and others. On February 6, 1829, Athanase-Louis-Emmanuel Hennequin, comte de Villermont, Paul Leviex Renaudin and Jacques Bollinger founded the champagne house Renaudin Bollinger, whereby the partners agreed not to use Villermont's name on the label. Since Jacques Bollinger married Charlotte de Villermont shortly afterwards, the house has been run solely by the Bollinger family, and although Paul Renaudin had died without an heir, the double name remained on the labels until the 1960s.

The marriage of Bollinger and Villermont produced a daughter who in turn gave birth to two sons, Joseph and Georges. These two grandchildren of Jacques Joseph Bollinger took over the company in 1885 and began to expand the Bollinger family estate in Champagne by purchasing vineyards in adjacent areas. They also developed the current image of the Bollinger brand by being appointed official purveyor to the British court by Queen Victoria in 1884.

Expansion under Lilly Bollinger

In 1918 Jacques Bollinger, the son of Georges, took over the business of the house and at the same time married Emily Law de Lauriston Bourbers, better known as "Lilly Bollinger". Jacques expanded the cellars of the Bollinger estate in Champagne while he was still alive, bought more wineries in Tauxieres and bequeathed the business to his wife Lilly when he died in 1941. Although the company was able to increase the company's performance with the acquisition of a few more wineries, Lilly Bollinger was best known around the world for her marketing promotional appearances for the Bollinger company. She was interviewed many times in connection with the Bollinger company and the subject of champagne and left a number of memorable quotes.

“I drink it [the champagne] when I am happy and when I am sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. If I have company, I regard it as mandatory. I tend to it when I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. I don't touch it - unless I'm thirsty. "

Lilly managed Bollinger until 1971 when she was replaced by her nephews Claude d'Hautefeuille and later Christian Bizot.

present

Bollinger was modernized under the direction of Claude d'Hautefeuille, who acquired additional wineries and consolidated the Bollinger brand internationally. After Claude, his cousin Bizot took control of the Bollinger house. In addition to expanding Bollinger's distribution to include an international network, Christian Bizot developed a statute for ethics and quality in 1992. Ghislain de Mongolfier has been managing Bollinger since 1994. As the founder's great-grandson, Mongolfier has also served as President of the Viticole Champenoise Association since 2004 , having headed the Commission of Champagne for ten years.

The champagne house also used the popular James Bond film series as a marketing tool. In the 1973 film Live and Let Die, James Bond (played by Roger Moore ) is heard asking for a bottle of Bollinger after entering his hotel room. In Moonraker (1979) abuts Bond -Bösewicht Beißer towards the end of the film with his girlfriend Dolly with Bollinger. In In the Face of Death , published in 1985, Bond (also Moore) recognizes a bottle on the top of the Eiffel Tower as "Bollinger '75". In The Living Daylights (1987), Bond (played by Timothy Dalton ) buys Bollinger in a gift package for General Koskov instead of the champagne proposed by M. In GoldenEye (1995), Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan ) has a hidden bottle of Bollinger in the center console. In 2002, in Die Another Day , Bond (also Brosnan) is heard asking for a bottle of Bollinger right after his release from a North Korean prison. Bond (played by Daniel Craig ) made the same request for champagne in Casino Royale , published in 2006 .

Wines

Bollinger's Special Cuvee

Bollinger is one of the last remaining independent champagne houses. The company has been family-run since 1889 and maintains more than 150 hectares of vineyards and currently produces the following sparkling wines.

• Special Cuvée (no vintage): The expression of the style of the house. This classic champagne blend uses the grapes from a given year with the addition of their own wine reserve. The blend contains 10% reserve wine, which can be up to 15 years old. This fact gives the Special Cuvée its complexity and depth. (Composition: 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, 15% Pinot Meunier.)
• Grande Année (vintage): When Bollinger believes they are expecting an exceptionally good harvest, they produce their prestigious Grande Année (great vintage) champagne. The house selects the best wines cru for cru to produce the Grande Année. This champagne also exists in a rosé version. The sparkling wine is stored in bottles sealed with cork for at least five years. (Composition: 65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay.)
• RD (vintage): This mixture is a logical extension of the Grande Année, which stores at least 8 instead of 5 years, just like the Grande Année sealed under cork. RD is a registered trademark of Bollinger, which stands for recently disgorged (original: récemment dégorgé). In the mid-1990s, Bollinger sold Année Rare, a variant of the RD that had been lying on the shelves for even longer.
• Vieille Vignes Francaises (vintage): This Blanc de Noirs is considered to be Bollinger's prestige cuvée. It is made in small quantities from grapes from vines that have been planted at low density (3000 vines per hectare). In the 1960s, the English wine author Cyril Ray first presented Lilly Bollinger with the idea of producing a separate wine from real-root vines. The first vintage was 1969. In 2005 Phylloxera destroyed the third winery on which Vieille Vignes was produced, Croix Rouge in Bouzy. Since then, all the grapes required for this rare champagne have been grown in the remaining two low-planted areas on an area of ​​only half a hectare. All bottles of a vintage are numbered, the annual production fluctuates between 3000 and 5000 bottles.
• Coteaux Champenois La Côte aux Enfants (vintage): This red wine is made from the grapes of the southern slopes of the Côte aux Enfants winery in Aÿ.

Reserve wines

For each harvest, Bollinger keeps some of the Grand Crus and Premier Crus as reserve wines. The reserves are filled into magnum bottles, corked and rest under slight pressure for 5 to 15 years. Since 60,000 to 70,000 magnum bottles are stored as a reserve every year, the Bollinger company has a large wine library with more than 300,000 magnum bottles. Bollinger's wine reserve system is unique in the champagne business and, in the opinion of the house itself, leads to the style of the Special Cuvée.

production

Bollinger is fermented in oak barrels . During the harvest, only the first pressing of the grapes is used, the cuvée. If the vintage is not of exceptional quality, in which case a second pressing of the Chardonnay is used, Bollinger will sell its second pressing. Bollinger has two press houses , one in Louvois and one in Mareuil-sur-Ay , to ensure a short distance between the harvesting location and the press house.

When the pressed wine arrives at the house, the cellar master from Bollinger analyzes the quality of the grape musts, and the musts that do not meet the house standard are released for sale. The first fermentation is carried out cru for cru in order to preserve the different characteristics of the individual growing areas. Bollinger is one of the few champagne houses where the first fermentation takes place in oak barrels. Bollinger champagnes are normally subjected to malolactic fermentation . As one of the few exceptions, the Grande Année 1995 was not subjected to malolactic fermentation. Bollinger uses traditional yeast after the house decided that new generations of yeast (encapsulated yeast and heaped yeast) would not make a satisfactory product.

Vintage wines, this also includes the Grande Année wines, are fermented in small oak barrels, sorted according to origin and variation. Both oak and stainless steel are used for non-vintage wines. The wooden barrels are all at least four years old in order to prevent any staining on the wine. These wines are only lightly filtered. All Bollinger champagnes spend considerable time in storage to add to their complex aroma. Although the " Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée " rules only stipulate a rest period of 15 months for non-vintage wines, Bollinger lets these three years rest and the vintage wines even five to eight. When a Bollinger champagne is delivered, it is ready to be consumed, but the wines also have the ability to age.

Grape supply

Bollinger owns almost 160 hectares of vineyards, which cover more than 60% of its own needs. The vines are dominated by Pinot Noir , especially clone 386. Bollinger is of the opinion that this clone ensures good quality and brings out the characteristics of the area well. The wineries also preserve rare genuine French vines from the time before the phylloxera epidemic. Bollinger owns vines in the heart of Champagne, including Crus in Aÿ, Bouzy and Verzenay .

List of the villages with the size of the respective growing areas

• Avenay: 15 hectares
• Aÿ: 22 hectares
• Bisseuil: 5.4 hectares
• Bouzy: 0.25 hectares
• Champvoisy: 17 hectares
• Cuis: 21.15 hectares
• Grauves: 6.6 hectares
• Louvois: 15.7 hectares
• Mutigny: 3.95 hectares
• Tauxières: 17.95 hectares
• Verzenay: 17 hectares

Corporate structure

The holding company for Bollinger is Société Jacques Bollinger, which also includes Ayala Champagne, Maison Chanson in Burgundy, Langlois-Chateau in Loire and Delamain in Cognac. Société Jacques Bollinger invested in the Tapanappa Winery in the Wrattonbully region of Australia.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Background to the history of origin [1]
2. ^ Gerhard Eichelmann: Champagne . Mondo, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-9809260-2-8 , p. 140 .
3. ↑ Absolutely Fabulous Champagne Refrigerator Wine? Fine !, December 14, 2009, accessed January 20, 2014
4. ↑ ^{a b} Framework data on the Bollinger House [2]
5. ↑ Bollinger's Royal Warrant [3]
6. ↑ Quote from Lilly Bollinger on enjoying champagne [4]
7. ↑ Bollinger and James Bond [5]
8. ↑ Special Cuvée [6]
9. ↑ La Grande Anée [7]
10. ↑ Cyril Ray: Bollinger: Tradition of a Champagne family. Heinemann Verlag, 1982, ISBN 0-434-62420-9 .
11. ↑ Article New York Times [8]
12. ↑ Tom Stevenson: Champagne. 2nd Edition. Graefe and Unzer Verlag, 1988, ISBN 3-7742-5044-8 , p. 201.
13. ^ Gerhard Eichelmann: Champagne . Mondo, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-9809260-2-8 , p. 141 .
14. ↑ Tom Stevenson: Champagne. 2nd Edition. Graefe and Unzer Verlag, 1988, ISBN 3-7742-5044-8 , pp. 200-201.
15. ↑ Maison Chanson archive link ( Memento of the original from August 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ Petaluma and Tapanappa [9]