2014 is the third vintage in which Bollinger have made a blanc de noirs labelled La Cote aux Enfants. The Champagne is made using Pinot Noir grapes from a very special terroir in Ay. We tasted this wine earlier this week and it is superb. The critics agree: Richard Juhlin and Antonio Galloni rate it 97 and 95 points respectively.
La Cote aux Enfants is a tiny, four hectare vineyard on the steep slopes of Ay. Part of this has always been used by to make a still red wine under the Cote aux Enfants label. Grapes from the other part went until 2012 into Bollinger’s vintage wine, La Grande Annee rose. The quality of the grapes from this terroir is such however that Bollinger are now using it to make a vintage Champagne named La Cote aux Enfants.
La Cote aux Enfants Champagne joins the PN series and of course Bollinger’s most famous wine, Vieilles Vignes Francaises, as a terroir-specific expression of varietal Pinot Noir. As with Vieilles Vignes Francaises, the base wine for La Cote aux Enfants is entirely fermented in old oak foudres. Also like its stablemate, the wine undergoes long lees ageing of over seven years. The resulting Champagne is rich and complex, with an extraordinarily fine mousse.
2014 was cooler than other recent vintage-quality years in Champagne. For producers such as Bollinger who favour a fuller style, this gave welcome balance to the wines. La Cote aux Enfants is particularly refined and nuanced this year.
This is a fantastic wine from a house is focussing, like the very best producers in Champagne, on terroir. Production is tiny at only just over 400 cases. Fans of Bollinger should be sure to secure some.
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