Bollinger - Grand Année Brut Champagne 2008 (Pre-arrival) (750ml)
Price: $205.00
| Producer | Bollinger |
| Country | France |
| Region | Champagne |
| Varietal | Champagne Blend |
| Vintage | 2008 |
| Sku | 1801135 |
| Size | 750ml |
Jeb Dunnuck: 99 Points
The 2008 Champagne La Grande Année is another brilliant 2008 that delivers the goods. Straight-up awesome notes of stone fruits, white flowers, honeysuckle, and an incredible, liquid rock-like minerality all emerge from the glass, and it develops more nuance, spice, toasted bread, and an almost Alsatian Riesling-like petrol character over the course of the evening. It’s a full-bodied, rich, powerful Champagne, yet like the top 2008s, it has brilliant precision, purity, and focus. It’s unquestionably one of the finest versions of this cuvée ever produced, although it needs another 4-5 years of bottle age to hit prime time. It should keep for 3-4 decades. Bravo!
Vinous: 97 Points
Bollinger's 2008 Grande Année is rich ample and full-bodied with all of the pedigree of the vintage on display. Dried pear dried flowers chamomile red plum and mint develop as the 2008 shows the breadth and creaminess that are such signatures of the Bollinger house style. A whole range of brighter more floral and chalky notes appear later adding translucence and energy. The 2008 is 71% Pinot Noir and 29% Chardonnay taken across 18 crus and it is the Pinot that very much informs the wine in both flavor and texture. More importantly the 2008 is one of the best Grande Années I can remember tasting. Bollinger fans won't want to miss it. Disgorged November 2018. Dosage is 8 grams per liter.
jdWine Advocate: 97+ Points
Bollinger's 2008 La Grande Année is superb wafting from the glass with aromas of crisp orchard fruit ripe lemons honeycomb warm biscuits dried white flowers and a delicate top note of walnuts and fino sherry. On the palate the wine is full-bodied broad and vinous with a beautifully refined mousse superb concentration at the tightly wound core incisive acids and a supremely elegant intermingling of Bollinger's oxidative stylistic signatures with fresh vibrant fruit. The finish is long precise and chalky. This is a Grande Année built for the cellar?the real excitement will come with a bit more bottle age?but this is already a thrilling Champagne in the making. Finished with eight grams per liter dosage it was disgorged by hand in July 2018. This is also the first vintage of Grande Année to be bottled in Bollinger's new narrower-necked 1846 bottle which should make for a slower evolving wine. Bollinger's just-released 2008 Grande Année was unquestionably one of the highlights of my tastings for my upcoming Champagne report (to be published at the end of April 2019) and I can't recommend it warmly enough. This is the most exciting Grande Année for quite some time the house's powerful Pinot Noir-driven and gently oxidative style synergizing to great effect with this ripe but incisive vintage. Readers will be familiar with the rudiments of the Bollinger's winemaking?fermentation in old barrels sur lattes maturation on natural cork and manual riddling and disgorgement?but I will be going into greater detail as well as looking back at the house's evolution over the last few decades in a more extensive article later this year. - William Kelley the Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator: 96 Points
Enticing hints of toasted cumin ground anise and graphite waft from the glass of this harmonious mouthwatering version accenting the finely meshed flavors of crushed black currant poached apricot grilled nut and lemon curd. The texture shows a lovely viscosity extending the flavor range on the lasting finish. Drink now through 2033. From France.?A.N. Senior editor Alison Napjus says: ?This marries Bollinger?s signature richness with the 2008 vintage?s luxurious textural character and steely backbone of acidity. Though the house does not adhere to a strict release schedule chef de cave Gilles Descôtes who started at Bollinger as vineyard manager in 2003 before his promotion to head winemaker in 2013 decided to hold the 2008 Grande Année. The cuvée is typically aged seven to nine years before release depending on the vintage?s character. Descôtes said the 2008?s ?impressive freshness? is what made him wait a full 11 years before launching this classic Pinot Noir?dominant blend.?
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