At Vinexpo Asia-Pacific, Bollinger created an event presenting its "Special Cuvée" in a new bottle!
Inspired by a historical bottle of blown glass and engraved 1846, found in the cellars of the House in Aÿ, the industrial replica meets important specifications for a sublimated wine quality.
Interview of cellar master Mathieu Kauffmann, at the origin of this creation: “Since a century, all the Champagnes Bollinger were packaged in the classic green Champenoise. The adoption of a new bottle was kind of a small revolution. An aesthetic consideration prevailed to reinforce Bollinger's identity and its elitist positioning. The new bottle had to display the perfect balance of a small magnum and its voluptuous curves.
Oenology required reducing the exchange of oxygen with the wine. Of course the base has been enlarged, the collar tightened, the ring's diameter decreased from 29 to 26mm. And for the ergonomics of the vintages that already lay in this bottle in the cellar, the neck has been designed at the same time in a square for the cork stopping and in a crown to receive the cap of the non-vintage Brut.
We did not change the glass colour, green being the best screen against ultraviolet rays, nor the packaging for the customer to keep his point of reference. For ecology, the lightening of the bottle down to 900 grams has been advocated”. This new bottle has become Special Cuvée 75cl's new cradle. Jewel of this great House (2 million bottles per year), this Brut is made with the three Champagne varietals—60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 15% Meunier.
This family House has not less than 160 hectares of vineyard in the most beautiful crus of Champagne. A richness of supplies and also a vineyard certified High Environmental Value for a month. Bollinger is the second French firm (and the first merchant) to get this distinction which implies a huge work in the vineyard. “We had to decrease drastically the insecticides, fungicides, fertilizers, but also manage biodiversity. That is: small wild flowers, earthworms … plant bushes and hedges of trees; in short, go far beyond integrated farming” Mathieu explains.
The terroir being very sound, the grapes of high quality, he operates the blending with 300 wines stemming from 50 different crus! “We try to use the same recipe every year to assure the constancy of the taste, a beautiful balance between the matter and powerfulness provided by the Pinot Noir from the grands crus, and freshness”. The blend is composed of more than 50% reserve wines (First and Grands Crus vintages matured in barrels and kept in magnums with cork stopping) completed with equal part of the two previous harvests. The wines sold in 2012, for example, are made with 40% 2008 harvest, as much of the 2007 harvest, complemented with reserve wines from 1995-2000. To this complex blend, add three years of ageing in the cellar… These are the secret of the House's excellence.
Champagne Bollinger
20bd Maréchal de Lattre De Tassigny
51160 Aÿ - France
Tel: +33 (0) 3 26 53 33 66
www.champagne-bollinger.com
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