The power of craft

Two violins and a marquee and a press invitation, because Bollinger's 2018 Grande Année has been festively unveiled. But make no mistake, because the Grande Année is not a marketing ploy, says winemaker Bérangère Fierfort-Caqué. Whatever all those bells and whistles seem to suggest, this champagne is above all an ode to craft.
Text: Sabina Posthumus | Image: Bollinger

For the winemaker, now associated with the champagne house for eight years, the release of the 2018 Grande Année is extra special because that year was her first harvest at Bollinger. ‘I did not yet understand what Grande Année was supposed to express,’ Bérangère Fierfort-Caqué says. ‘It was all new to me. Of course I have the right papers for this work, but to understand Grande Année, I first had to know the house's style inside out.’

Attention to the barrel

That style is not determined by one person. The chef de cave has the last word, of course, but the blend is put together by a tasting panel of five regular members, supported by a wider group of 12 tasters. For three months, all vins clairs blind tasted and reviewed. Each barrel individually, each plot with attention. ‘We collect our notes and we start comparing them,’ says Bérangère. ‘It's a huge puzzle. Which wine fits the vintage, which wine fits the style of our house. And we also have to imagine how the wine is going to change over the years. How do we deal with the dosage? And through experience, you also learn the impact of second fermentation in the bottle, because we taste all the wines silently, without bubbles.’

Do they or don't they?

The previous Grande Année had 2015 on its label, so now it is the turn of the 2018 champagne. An exceptional vintage, if you add the reports from that year. While we worried about Harry and Megan's wedding, or Zoutelande streaming or cheering for PSV, in Champagne region they had to contend with a wet winter, hot summer, and a bountiful harvest of fine chardonnay and pinot noir. Such a windfall was welcome after the misery caused by hailstorms in spring 2017.

How does Bollinger actually decide whether they will make a Grande Année? That decision is made in stages. Bérangère: ‘A first impression emerges during the harvest: healthy grapes, balance between acids and sugars, aromatic concentration. Then we already get the jitters, a sense of excitement, that this could be a very special year. Could it? Maybe? Only after alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, when all the vins clairs have been tasted, does the final verdict fall. Such a special year deserves a vintage.’ And sttt, mouth shut. Even this article is written ‘under embargo’, the decision remains internal until the wine has proven itself in the cellars after the tirage.

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