BollingerLa Grande Annee 2004

Ung, fräsch bouquet med vita päron, grapefrukt, grädde, blommor och mineraler. Smaken är ung, frisk och fruktig med ren, elegant frukt, läcker syra och inslag av grapefrukt, vinteräpplen, lime, ljus choklad, blommor, mintchoklad, blommor, mineraler och fat. En ung, fräsch champagne med elegant, årgångstypisk och klingande ren frukt, läcker syra och ung, elegant eftersmak.

A blend of 66% Pinot Noir and 34% Chardonnay, this is opulent and full bodied, with toast and wood flavors. Rich and ripe, this beautiful wine is generous and still young, with just a touch of bitterness at the end.

Bollingers 2004 Brut La Grand Année is a beautiful wine with a lot of vintage character, but the style is a bit less oxidative than Bollinger fans are likely to expect. Pears, hazelnuts, spices and crushed rocks all flow through to the tense, vibrant finish. It will be interesting to see if the 2004 puts on weight in the bottle, as so many wines from this vintage have. Today, it is bright, linear and quite pretty. Green apples, pears and flowers all add lift on the close.

Firm, with well-cut acidity and a fine texture, this is aromatic, delivering a skein of ground spice and graphite notes that mesh seamlessly with the flavors of black currant, black cherry, toasted almond, financier, honey and smoky mineral. Offers a long, mouthwatering finish. Drink now through 2024. Tasted twice, with consistent notes.

Savoury nose. Really quite introvert, crystalline with masses of acidity. Very youthful indeed.

All that having been noted, it is Kaufmann and then-director Ghislain de Montgolfier who can take responsibility for the success that is Bollinger’s 2004 Brut Grande Annee, a bottling that, in marrying the restraint associated with young wines from this house with that of a relatively cool and copious but ultimately fascinating vintage, has rendered a work of subtle intrigue and refinement that will merit a dozen or more years’ attention. Quite pale in color and with unexpectedly green-gold shimmering, this two-thirds Pinot Noir cuvee displays alluringly silken texture and refinement of mousse as well as delicacy. Fresh white peach, yellow tomato, lime, and rhubarb offer subtly tart, brightly juicy succulence, and a mingling of chalk and sweet-saline oyster liquor serves for saliva-inducement in a long finish tinged with lightly toasted grains and nuts. It will be good to return next year to Bollinger, one of the houses I visited on my first day in Champagne 30 years ago and a longtime favorite; but for 2014, I was forced by press of time and complications of scheduling to limit myself to tasting a single new release. Early this year, dozen-year veteran Bollinger chef de cave Mathieu Kauffmann unexpectedly announced his resignation to join Reichsrat von Buhl (part of recently deceased Achim Niederberger’s plan for renewing that venerable Pfalz estate, inter alia through increased attention to its already impressive sparkling wine program), and in June Bollinger’s director Jerome Philipon announced that Kaufmann’s former right-hand, Gilles Descotes, would succeed him.

Powerful orchard and pit fruit aromas are complemented by smoky lees, iodine, chamomile and buttered toast. At once fleshy and energetic, offering deeply pitched poached pear, peach pit and brioche flavors and a suave floral element. Finishes smoky and very long, with mounting spiciness and lingering floral and vanilla notes.