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Bollinger La Grande Annee 2012 released
By Liv-ex
Today, Bollinger Grande Annee 2012 was released in the UK at £880 per 12×75.
Champagne specialist, Richard Juhlin commented that “the wine is made from 21 villages with Aÿ and Verzenay in the driver’s seat backed by elegance from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oiry”.
Juhlin awarded the wine 95 points. In his tasting note he said that “anyone who has patience will be rewarded with truffled flavor layers, chocolate saturated complexity and added exoticism of honeysuckle in the wine’s bouquet.”.
Writing for Decanter, Simon Field MW scored the wine a slightly lower 93 points. He described the wine as being “energetic, vital and brimming with potential”.
Wine Description
The Story
La Grande Année is the very embodiment of an exceptional, timeless champagne. Artisanal savoir-faire is at the heart of its production. One such artisanal technique is vinification, which takes place in oak barrels that are around 20 years old. This helps the wine develop complex aromas, and, thanks to micro-oxygenation, lends an extraordinary ageing potential. These 4,000 barrels are housed and maintained in the Champagne Bollinger Cooperage. Bollinger is the only Champagne House to have a resident cooper.
All Bollinger vintages, including La Grande Année, are riddled and disgorged entirely by hand, a process which takes place after the wine has long been aged on its lees, in bottles sealed with cork. These rigorous, artisanal techniques contribute to making La Grande Année a truly hand-crafted wine.
Vintage 2012
2012 was deemed one of the best vintages the Champagne region has ever experienced. “The quality and the intensity are definitely there to make an outstanding vintage,” Dom Perignon chef de cave Richard Geoffroy told Decanter. The base wines show a lovely richness as well as the acidity needed to make outstanding and long-lived Champagnes. Yields are very low, in some places half of the allowed production.
