“If I remember correctly, there are five causes of drinking: the arrival of the guest, present thirst and future thirst, as well as the quality of the wine and any other cause that pleases. I love this quote. She does not go around the pot, but fills it or empties it, depending on the dehydration index. This comes from the inscription engraved in Latin on the facade of the vat room of the Notre-Dame-de-Cîteaux abbey in 1772. We can obviously enumerate an incalculable number of pretexts, situations or beautiful liquids to release a Cork. It remains that, among these five causes of drinking, the quality of the wine is the one that finds your support, otherwise why would you read these lines? Let’s push the cork further this week with an exceptional wine which, along with the mythical Montrachet, is undoubtedly one of the greatest whites on the wine planet. Yes, these are indeed champagne wines, more particularly those produced by the Bollinger family house.
State of play
While the pandemic has weighed heavily on the wine industry, the past three years have suffered, at least in France, from climatic setbacks that have undermined the volumes of wine produced. With an impact on the prices that our monopoly tries to contain without however succeeding completely. Champagne is no exception. According to the former managing director of the Champagne Committee, Vincent Perrin, Champagne posted a sales record for the year 2019 in value of 5 billion euros, this due among other things to the development of distant markets and the move upmarket. , as well as the diversification of cuvées, knowing that the BSA (raw without vintage) still account for 78.5% of the volumes shipped.
That was in 2019, the equivalent of three buffer harvests to ensure a minimum quality on the slats for the production of the precious bubble. Fortunately, the 2022 vintage looks promising in terms of volumes and overall quality, but will nevertheless generate some tension on stocks for 2020 and 2021, as the development director of the Bollinger house, Cyril Delarue. “We are out of supply for a current demand that is simply exponential,” he added. The latter specified more generally that the famous appellation remains the world’s leading wine AOC in terms of value, while total production is exported to more than 190 countries with nearly 298 million bottles sold.
If the house of the late Lily Bollinger is recognized for its discretion, it is also prized for the subtle and personalized preparation of its many cuvées framed by its own quality charter. The Bollinger signature? It is reflected in the nobility of the woods (fermentation and ageing), an impressive vinothèque of reserve wines (up to 60% of the blends), exceptional pinots noirs and, of course, a luxury in time management which adds to the depth of the cuvées. The profile of the wines leans less on vinosity than on the delicacy of a fleshy, of a density of flavors which, like a mille-feuille, offers in turn a multi-track interpretation unveiled according to a scenario calibrated to the milliliter by the cellar master Gilles Descôtes. Great art! My advice: stock up now for the end-of-year festivities…