2014 - Bollinger, La Grande Annee

Bollinger’s 2014 La Grande Année is a great way to start the evening as guests mill around Wheeler Farms. It is early evening in Napa, but there is still plenty of action in the winery, where various lots are being pressed under the watchful eye of winemaker Nigel Kinsman. There are some moments where I would very much like to be a civilian, a regular person enjoying the night, but I am more concerned with our guests having a great night, so I quickly go back to check on our wines. The Bollinger 2014 is everything I expected; bright, focused and full of all the energy this late-ripening vintage conferred to the best wines.

Revealing its refined pedigree in spades, Bollinger’s Grand Année 2014 is a 61% Pinot Noir and 39% Chardonnay, an expressly higher percentage of Chardonnay than usual to capture the excellent quality found in the 2014 harvest. Traditionally 100% fermented in small oak barrels, the wine remained in contact with the lees until bottling in May the following year, aged on fine lees until it was manually riddled and disgorged February 2023 with a seven gram per liter dosage. Burnished yellow gold with pinpoint columns of bubbles emerging, it first unfurls with an airy swirl of minerality that overlays richer aromas of warm apple tarte, lemon curd, butter sablé cookies, toast and nuts. Full-bodied, beautifully balanced and filled with verve, the palate is as lithe and winsome as it is textural and intense, with an electric shimmer of acidity bringing freshness and bright salinity to a long, long finish.