Bollinger - La Côte aux Enfants 2014

So incredibly exciting to embark on the third edition of this world-class wine. It is extra exciting because it is the first time that the same vintage of VVF and LCE is launched at the same time. In the past they have been released in reverse order so the comparison between them has been a bit lame. The story is now widely known. The one about Jacques Bollinger who bought up all the land in La Côte aux Enfants to make a monopoly vineyard out of this 4 hectare diamond in the rough. The location has a sun-drenched side of 2 hectares that is extremely well suited for red wine production, as well as a lesser-known cooler back side to the north-west towards Dizy with an extremely pure belemnite chalk. Of course, an extremely low harvest and the Selection Massale produced only just over 1,000 bottles for all the world's champagne collectors to fight over. After the harvest, the wine is stored for an optimal time in the house's main well-aged oak barrels and then rests for 10 years in the cellar with natural cork for maximum autolytic body building in the same spirit as the vintage wine and VVF. Taken together, all these details give an absolutely fantastic deep golden color with hugely intense concentration and a rarely seen mineral-tinged freshness. The base notes of fully matured Pinot Noir rumble together with the bombastic weight of the oak barrels. Already after a few seconds of encountering the wine's wonderful bouquet, I could state that 2014 Bollinger La Côte aux Enfants is in many ways the very essence of "old style Bollinger". The color is very deep golden and I was blown away by how rich and mature the wine felt right away. Significantly fuller and more voluminous than both 2012 and 2013. The scent is actually as big this time as VVF and even more mature. All of this surprised me as 2014 is generally the lightest of the three. Here it was the opposite. The only thing that somehow makes me recognize the vintage is the neat and elegant note of grilled lemons I find more and more marked as the wine sounds majestically in the mouth. Perhaps this wine personifies the soul and heart of Bollinger better than any other wine. If you have been in Bollinger's cellar and in the beautiful hall where all the oak barrels are lined up, you will probably never forget the unique aroma you find there. With Bollinger's deliberately oxidative vinification, all wines from there will be strongly influenced by their external environment. When everything goes right, as it has here, this fragrance makes for a fabulously stylish personal spice. In the first place, of course, it is the micro-oxidation through the fibers of the oak barrel that leaves an impression, but also the notes of old oak with their grilled, lightly burnt and faintly smoked notes that attract autumn forest and Finnish sauna give great pleasure. From the concentrated Pinot Noir grapes, you get an extract-rich juiciness and a chewy red fruit of Gravensteiner apple, beetroot, apricot jam, strawberries and honey. From Aÿ's terroir comes an unmistakable aroma of hazelnut, honeysuckle, leather and tobacco. Can this masterpiece be stored? Sure, but does it make it better? Hardly, probably a slump will come in a few years and a new beautiful phase will only enter in ten years when new parts of the personality take shape. Different and just as good, but hardly better.