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The Maker: For almost two hundred years, Champagne Bollinger has been making powerful, refined and complex wines that express the aromas of fruit in all its dimensions. In 1829, Athanase de Villermont’s vast estate just outside the town of Äy provided the backdrop for the founding of an extraordinary Champagne house - but as an aristocrat, Athanese was forbidden from engaging in commercial trade. With the recruitment of Joseph “Jacques” Bollinger, a Champagne merchant, and Paul Renaudin, a Champernois fascinated by the world of wine, the Bollinger legacy began. The Bollinger style is inimitable and recognised as such by great connoisseurs. It possesses a dense and subtle presence: a balance of the intensity of great Pinot Noirs and the freshness of Chardonnays from the Côte des Blancs. The house’s offerings are rooted in 5 tangible principles: the vineyards; Pinot Noir; magnums of reserve wines; the barrels, and time. Bollinger wines release a creamy effervescence resulting from vinifying in oak barrels and prolonged contact with the yeasts. Every tasting yields new delights that are guaranteed to transport you. The Vineyard: Bollinger has built its vineyards at the heart of the finest crus in Champagne. 180 hectares of vines are made up of 85% Grand and Premier crus and are farmed by our teams of growers across 7 separate vineyards: Aÿ, Avenay, Tauxières, Louvois and Verzenay for Pinot Noir; the Montagne de Reims, Cuis for Chardonnay; and the Côte des Blancs and Champvoisy for Meunier. Another of Bollinger’s distinctive features are the two plots of Clos Saint-Jacques and Chaudes Terres. There, ungrafted vines are entirely tended by hand and reproduced using a form of layering called provignage, preserving the extraordinary heritage from which the Vieilles Vignes Françaises cuvée is produced. Pinot Noir is the varietal on which Bollinger has staked its reputation. A demanding grape that requires care at every step, it remains front and centre because of the incomparable finesse it brings to a wine. Today, the Pinot Noir planted around the Montagne de Reims represents over 60% of the Bollinger vineyards. This also just happens to be the exact proportion it occupies in Special Cuvée! Multi-faceted and surprising, its unusually high ratio in the blends is a signature of the Bollinger style, to which it lends power, body and vinosity. It has been one of the founding principles of Champagne Bollinger’s identity from the very beginning. Bollinger is guided by a responsibility anchored in time and a commitment to people, the earth and our roots. It is committed to the well-being of its teams, preserving biodiversity, and reducing the brand’s carbon footprint. Tasting Notes: NOSE Powerful, complex, red fruits The beauty of ripe fruit and spicy aromas; hints of roasted apples, compote and peaches. PALATE Lush, enveloping, creamy A subtle combination of structure, length and vivacity; bubbles like velvet; pear, brioche and spicy aromas, notes of fresh walnut. FINISH Dry, mineral, petrichor Mellow and refreshing, punctuated by a crisp bite derived from its Chardonnay component. Reviews + Accolades: “... this iconic non-vintage cuvée is dominated by Pinot Noir that gives impressive richness as well as ripe stone fruits. Wood fermentation adds further complexity as does the age of this bottling before release. Drink this Champagne now.” – Wine Enthusiast The Finer Details: Style - Champagne Varietal - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier Country - France Region - Champagne Vintage - Non-Vintage Bottle Size - 750ml ABV - 12% Closure - Cork

Suenen crafts just a single 600-litre demi-muid of this cuvée. It originates from a parcel of particularly low-yielding vines planted in Chouilly’s renowned Le Mont-Aigu terroir, near the Cramant border on the Butte de Saran. Now more than 45 years of age, these old vines suffer from fanleaf virus, resulting in tiny leaves, roots and bunches. Coupled with skeletal soils (just 35 cm of topsoil over pure chalk), this results in a deep yet compact expression of Chouilly that is unlike any other. Expect flesh and concentrated ripeness yet also chiselled structure and intense, saline minerality.

The most northern of Suenen’s Oiry parcels, La Cocluette is also home to the domaine’s oldest vines (planted in 1925), a site where the ancient roots bury deep into the dense Campanian chalk (the younger plantings from this site go into the Oiry Blanc de Blancs). Vines of this age are as rare as hens’ teeth in Champagne, and they gift tiny yields of concentrated berries. The land here is largely flat with a somewhat northern exposure. Here the base wine fermented naturally and aged for nine months in one 700-litre concrete egg and one 600-litre Stockinger barrel (the same that is used each year). It then aged sur lies for 60 months in bottle until disgorgement in July 2022, when it was dosed with 3 g/L. Suenen explains that the wines from this vineyard express themselves with great finesse. “The energy brought by this calcium-rich terroir makes the mouthfeel richer through a silky bubble. With time, the finish lengthens on a salivating mineral vibrancy.” Put another way, this is a more intense and complex expression of this region’s naked-chalk terroir than the NV Oiry