Bollinger : B16 Extra Brut

From a relatively cool, mildew-pressured year that did not deliver sufficient fruit for Aÿ to serve as the principal component—and thus precluded the making of La Grande Année—Bollinger instead opted to release the 2016 B16. Disgorged in November 2024 with a dosage of four grams per liter, the wine unwinds in the glass with aromas of yellow apple, mirabelle plum, honeysuckle and bergamot mingled with freshly baked bread and a faint hint of passion fruit. Full-bodied and elegantly muscular, the palate offers a rich, sweet core of fruit, racy acids and an animating pinpoint mousse, concluding with a long, enveloping finish. Vinified entirely in barrels, it comprises 27% Chardonnay and 73% Pinot Noir—principally from Bouzy, Tauxières, Verzy and Verzenay—and will reward additional aging on cork.

A rich range of black cherry coulis, grilled macadamia nut, poached peach, and crystallized honey and ginger is seamlessly knit with racy acidity and a chalky underpinning in this statuesque Champagne. Upon first sip, the graceful integration belies the depth and focus, but as this expands on the long, long, creamy finish, adding hints of lime blossoms, tangerine peel, graphite and brioche, all of its many attributes are on full display. Disgorged November 2024. Drink now through 2036.

In 2013, Bollinger did not release a Grande Année but did offer its B13, a single-vintage take on a year considered atypical for the Bollinger style. The concept is repeated in the tricky but ultimately fine quality 2016 harvest with the B16. It presents a relatively delicate, cool and understated vintage relative to the Grande Année. The ripeness of the Pinot Noir is certainly present in the juicy stewed apricot and fresh raspberry fruit, but Chardonnay here brings gentle orchard fruit and fresh grapefruit zest beneath subtle richness of toasted nut and oyster shell complexity from ageing. While Grande Année offers more intensity and drama, and the latest PN series offers dynamism and youthful energy, B16 is perfectly pitched between smooth maturity and approachable brightness, all at a temptingly moderate premium over the non-vintage cuvée.

An alluring, delicate nose, like a dancer flitting from one aroma to the next, from white flowers to nutty notes, with delicious saline touches. The palate unfolds with exquisite roundness and a fine mousse, lifted by a slight bitterness that gives it character, and a radiant finish.