Bollinger : "Vieilles Vignes Françaises" Blanc de Noirs 2014

After the broad, muscular 2012 and the incisive 2013, Bollinger's 2014 Blanc de Noirs Vieilles Vignes Françaises represents something of a middle ground, with its charming, suave profile and elegant bouquet of crisp yellow orchard fruit, mandarin oil, praline and buttered toast. Medium to full-bodied, pillowy and layered, with impressive depth and density for the vintage but also unusually immediacy for this cuvée, it will offer a broad drinking window. Produced from ungrafted Pinot Noir vines and fermented in old barrels, it represents the ne plus ultra of the Bollinger style.

Bollinger's extraordinary plots of ungrafted Pinot Noir yield one of Champagne's most unique, rare and deeply flavoured blanc de noirs. The natural brightness of the 2014 vintage is at play, quietly though. Yes the concentrated orange citrus, dried apple and nut oil richness is all there, backed up with layers of maple syrup and brown bread toast, but there's a oyster shell brightness and floral lift too, meeting plenty of tangy acidity. Full of drama and detail. It's a Pinot Noir of undeniable substance.

The 2014 Vieilles Vignes Françaises is a stunning, exotic beauty. Silky contours wrap around a core of apricot, tangerine, orange marmalade, spice, ginger, dried flowers and marzipan. The 2014 is a Champagne of real textural breath and intensity. It's a superb wine in a year that presented numerous challenges along the way. I would prefer to cellar this for a few years. In a word: fabulous. Dosage is 4 grams per liter.