One of the last remaining independent houses in Champagne, Bollinger has re-invented its presentation to coincide with the release of one of its finest vintage Champagnes, the Grande Annee 1990. Here is a gloriously vibrant, complex, and almost rustic expression of Bollinger’s approach. Long and luxuriant, its fresh, crackly and nutty bouquet of ripe cherries, mushrooms and dried flowers precedes an explosively intense palate. Powerful, long and lingering, it finishes clean and austere. The first Grande Annee to sport the marque’s new livery, it amply justifies the asking price of around $120 with a rating of 19.3. While companies like Botobolar, Mitchelton and Mount Langi Ghiran work hard to reduce and eliminate the use of chemicals in their vineyards, Cassegrain Vineyards has taken one big step further with its experiments with bio-dynamic viticulture, which began in the early 1980s. John Cassegrain estimates it costs him an extra third more to grow biodynamic grapes, but he’s convinced his fruit is so much better as a result that it’s a cost worth bearing. ‘Bio-dynamics is about improving the quality of the soil and about growing healthier plants. Healthier plants are more disease-resistant and produce fruit that’s better balanced and has better flavour’, he says. Cassegrain’s Reserve Chambourcin, now his company’s flagship dry red, is entirely made from fruit with a Demeter Grade A certification from the Bio-Dynamic Research Institute of Australia. Once in the winery, the biodynamic wine is handled using different equipment, tanks, barrels, etc to those used for Cassegrain’s other wines. ‘It’s a bit like running two wineries under the one roof,’ Cassegrain explains. The earthy, undergrowthy and fine-grained 1996 Reserve Chambourcin (16.0, drink 1998-2001) is now available.
