Community Tasting Note
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SLIMES wrote: 84 points
September 28, 2013 - I'm a big Bollinger fan and normally find a rich yeasty champagne in each bottle. Not tonight. This had the more youthful side of Bollinger: Red apple with plenty of acidity but not much more than that. This was actually quite thin and I enjoyed the Piper Heidsieck of a few days ago a lot more (!).
The lot number on the foil reads: L1311601 suggesting that this was disgorged earlier this year. Maybe it's too young? However I look at it, this is a pretty crappy effort, and I wouldn't be amazingly impressed if served this blind. It's tempting to search for excuses as I'm normally such a fan, but I don't offer that to lesser brands. It's interesting to note that the older halves I had recently were much better; I hope that this reflects the immaturity of this bottle rather than a dip in standards at Bollinger.
I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt for now and I would hope that they start to print disgorgement dates; if Lanson can do it, it can't be that difficult. I'm going to watch this carefully though, Regis Camus is raising standards at Piper (cutting production by about 20%) and if I what something special, Charles Heidsieck has some great offerings now that they're increasing the average age of their reserve wines from 8 to 10 years. In terms of other competition, I would have been happier with Drappier tonight. I'm not going to buy Bollinger out of habit, so I hope my next bottle is better.
Night 2 edit: Not much improvement. I might lay some down. See how these turn out.4 people found this helpful 13,237 views
1 Comment
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vino_per_tutti commented:
10/2/13, 4:59 AM - Thanks for the extensive notes and suggested alternatives.