Upon the discovery of an abandoned wine cellar in 2010, Champagne Bollinger decided to carry out extensive archive research to identify the seemingly very old bottles and magnums of reserve wines it contained. After years of careful restoration of the vintages, Champagne Bollinger has now unveiled the Galerie 1892 and La Réserve wine libraries.
The huge project began in 2012 and has seen over 4000 bottles meticulously restored. The bottles were found in differing states of preservation, each bottle therefore requiring varying depths of restoration from the changing of corks and wire caps, to disgorgement. The painstaking process took the dedicated team three years to complete.
The discovery of the vintages has also lead to a further appreciation Champagne Bollinger’s history. Cellar Master Gilles Descôtes stated, “The in-depth analysis performed on all of the wines now being presented in the wine libraries and our very rich and comprehensive House archives has helped us enormously in furthering our understanding of the unique and inimitable style of Champagne Bollinger.”
Galerie 1892 will showcase Bollinger wines preserved since the House was founded in 1892. Highlights of this library include the vintage Bollinger R.D. collection created in 1952 and the vintage Vielles Vignes Françaises collection developed since 1969.
La Réserve will allow you to explore the foundations of the Bollinger style – the reserve magnums. The library is a journey back though over a century of refinement. More than 3000 magnums unique to the Champagne region are featured, with each preserved grape-by-grape and vintage-by-vintage.
“We are proud and humbled to present our two wine libraries, “Galerie 1829” and “La Réserve”, that bring together wines from over 65 different vintages, all produced by our House since its creation in 1829.” Jérôme Philipon, President of Champagne Bollinger stated.
The wine libraries have not been made for commercial purpose, but through them Bollinger hopes to share the legacy it has preserved over the course of the centuries.
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