Bollinger Builds for the Next Century

Champagne Bollinger unveiled its new 5,000-barrel cellar in style, with La Grande Année 2018 Brut Blanc and Rosé, setting the tone for a milestone moment. Building the new cellars is an important development on the road to Bollinger’s 200th annirversary, writes Elizabeth Gabay

Creating the new cellars was regarded as important to lead the house forward for the next 100 years. Located across the road from the original headquarters, and connected by an underground tunnel to the old cellars, a splendid building with a surface area of 22,000m2 has been built with windows overlooking the Chaudes Terres parcel. Construction began in the summer of 2023 and culminated in an opening in March 2026.

The densely planted vineyards of Champagne cover 34,000 hectares of rolling hills. Bollinger is one of the largest independent family-owned houses, with 180 hectares under vine. An impressive 85% of these are classified as Grand and Premier crus, spread across seven separate vineyards: Aÿ (including La Côte aux Enfants), Avenay, Tauxières, Louvois and Verzenay for Pinot Noir, around the Montagne de Reims, Cuis for Chardonnay on the Côte des Blancs and Champvoisy for Meunier in the Vallée de la Marne. Two rare plots, the Clos Saint- Jacques and Chaudes Terres, are planted with prephylloxera ungrafted vines producing Champagne Cuvée Vieilles Vignes Françaises.

Beneath the original 19th-century Bollinger home, six kilometres of old cellars, started in the 1820s, remain at the heart of the company. Reached by 49 steps, they have 99% humidity and a cool, constant temperature. These cellars store up to 12 million bottles, including magnums of Bollinger’s top wines ageing before release, reserve wines used in non-vintage wines as well as locked cellars of archive wines, rediscovered in 2010 going back almost 200 years.

Up until the 1970s, barrels were much more commonly used, but with the advent of modern vinification in stainless steel tanks, barrels fell out of fashion. Unusually, Bollinger retained the tradition of using barrels and – unique in Champagne – have their own in-house cooper, Gaël Chaunut, who looks after their stock of 4,350, mainly 228L barrels, of which 200 to 400 barrels are
renovated every year.

A tour of both the new and historic cellars showed the unique role of barrels in Bollinger’s top champagnes. The barrels come from Bollinger’s estate, Domaine Chanson in Côte de Beaune, where after four to five years, the used 2,28L barrels are brought to Champagne and are used for 30 to 40 years. The oldest barrel currently in use is 34 years old. The aim was to increase the number of barrels to 5,000 and the new cellars were designed to accommodate the expanded capacity.

The grand opening was marked by a banquet set in the large cellar room, prepared by the three-Michelin-starred Troisgros brothers from Burgundy and paired with champagne. The event did not just celebrate the opening of the new cellar, but also marked the release of La Grande Année 2018 white and rosé. We toured the cellars to see the different stages in winemaking – from riddling to ageing and disgorgement, emphasizing the meticulous, largely manual approach reserved for the house’s top cuvées.

Created in the mid 20th century in a preclimate- change era when spectacular vintages did not occur every year, La Grande Année, is produced only in the very best vintages. Fermentation with free run and first press juice takes place in barrel for both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, while Meunier is the only variety vinified in tank to preserve its freshness.

A tasting of three of these single village/ cru wines (from the excellent 2025 vintage) showed how the complex flavours are achieved in the resulting wines of La Grande Année. The base wine, from north-facing vineyards on the Côte des Blancs, is Chardonnay where the long, cool ripening period produces ripe fruit with piercing citrus acidity. A Pinot Noir blanc de noirs from a warm, sunny vineyard in Aÿ contributes ripe black fruit with a mineral, weighty structure. The Pinot Noir blanc de noir from Verzenay is perfumed with ripe concentrated fruit and a more tannic structure.

The influence of oak is subtle but significant, with the age of the barrels playing a crucial role: younger barrels impart more overt oak character, while older ones contribute texture and structure without flavour dominance.

After six to seven months in the barrel, the wines are blended. We tasted some of the Verzenay Blanc de Noirs fermented and aged in two-year-old barrels which gave buttery, oxidative, vanilla-flavoured, oak dominant wine. The four-year-old barrels showed apples and pears with a hint of pineapple ripeness and some toasty notes while the 20-year-old barrels produced wines with good weight and structure, but no evident oak character.

After blending, Grande Année is aged a further seven to nine years (three years ageing is the minimum for a vintage wine) with a small addition of yeast to maintain freshness during this extended maturation. Notably, Bollinger’s vintage and Grande Année wines are always aged in magnum with a cork, not crown cap closure, with manual riddling (the gyropalette is reserved for their other wines) and disgorged à la volée, a traditional, manual method without freezing the neck, both techniques require considerable skill.

In 1975 Elizabeth Bollinger created the rosé version with 5% of the red wine from La Côte aux Enfants vineyard in Aÿ, a steep, four-hectare site planted with old vines. The vineyard itself is divided into two parts by a chalk escarpment. In good vintages, half is used to make a tiny volume of single parcel vintage champagne and the warmer southern half is used to make a red Coteaux Champenois. The red wine is made in a Burgundian style with whole clusters and produces wines of great concentration. Depending on the vintage, the fruit may be bottled as a single-parcel vintage champagne or incorporated into blends of different champagnes.

Vintage variation is embraced for these wines: La Grande Année white and rosé from the hot 2015 vintage were intense, structured and vinous wines. The 2018 is more vibrant and fruity with sour red berry fruit and a phenolic finish. The 2019, 2020 and 2022 will be similar.

By positioning Bollinger increasingly as a destination, the new cellar signals a broader evolution beyond production, addressing the relative scarcity of high-end accommodation in the region with plans to open a hotel by 2029. Maison Dueil, part of the Bollinger estate, will be completely transformed into a 20-bedroom luxury hotel with a spa, pool, meeting rooms, a reception room and a dining room opening out to the garden.