James Bond's Champagne Of Choice Drops New Releases

Today the official Champagne of record for 007, Champagne Bollinger , drops the new vintage releases of their prestige cuvées: La Grande Année 2015 (SRP: $268) and La Grande Année Rosé 2015 (SRP: $307). Produced only in the best of years—when the harvest reaches a perfect balance— La Grand Année is the pure embodiment of Bollinger’s commitment to craftsmanship, and underscores everything that makes the family-owned House a stand out in the Champagne category since their founding in 1829.

The exceptional range of climatic conditions throughout 2015—characterized by extreme heat and rain—resulted in a bountiful harvest through Bollinger’s viticultural expertise. The wines are opulent and powerful, with exquisite texture, acidity and concentration coming through with each bottle.

Both La Grande Année 2015 and La Grande Année Rosé 2015 are influenced greatly by the forest as it plays an important role in many facets of the creation of the wine. The wines echo the theme of the forest and woodlands, which highlights the structure and precision of both cuvées during the time they spent maturing in oak casks, one of Bollinger’s most distinctive characteristic. Their barrel vinification allows the wine to breathe and softens some of the nature’s excesses. The Maison uses old oak casks with an average of 20 years of age, allowing micro-oxygenation favoring the birth of fine aromas and giving the wine capacity to age for decades.

This gastronomic wine lends itself to bolder pairings one may not expect from Champagne, such as wild game and dry-aged steaks. You can never go wrong enjoying La Grande Année 2015 or La Grande Année Rosé 2015 with oysters, grilled lobster tail with lemon butter, or sole meunière. Pinot Noir is at the backbone of all Bollinger Champagnes composition, using roughly 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay to give a round mouth-feel while finishing elegantly with decadent acidity and a mineral edge to the Champagnes. That weight and depth is a marker that has set Bollinger apart for nearly two centuries.

La Grande Année : The Great Year. This Champagne is the embodiment of everything that makes Bollinger the producer that stands apart in Champagne. La Grande Année symbolizes the word “hand-crafted” so strongly that an overused word suddenly becomes the appropriate definition. In 1976, it became Grande Année; then, in 1997, “La” Grande Année, a name simple enough to illustrate its exceptional status, cemented on the silver screen two years later, in James Bond’s Casino Royale .