Bollinger’s prestige cuvée is the vintage-dated La Grande Année, made of roughly two-thirds Pinot Noir and one-third Chardonnay. It is produced only when the harvest reaches a perfect balance. This wine ferments entirely in oak barrels, and undergoes its second fermentation under cork instead of crown capsule. It’s filled with aromas of honey, gingerbread and cinnamon, and offers a core of pastry and candied orange flavors on the palate.

In 1976, Bollinger Vintage became Grande Année; then, in 1997, “La” Grande Année, a name simple enough to illustrate its exceptional status.  This prestige cuvée made its silver screen debut two years later, in James Bond’s Casino Royale.

The 2005 season delivered a higher than average annual temperature, with a dry and sunny September that promised a high-quality harvest. 

A small revolution in the world of Champagne. In 1967, Bollinger releases R.D. 1952.  There is no comparable Champagne on the market at the time. This bold and brilliant Champagne takes the pillars of what makes Champagne Bollinger so unique, and pushes them to their ultimate level. It is, very simply, a masterpiece.

The majority of Champagne Houses have always kept a collection of old wines in order to share with their family, close friends and special guests. The custom was that these old wines were especially disgorged only a very short time before being tasted, so that those invited could share a perfect moment when the wine, disgorged just recently, would offer an extraordinary freshness and sumptuous aromatic expression. This is the boldness of both R.D. and Madame Bollinger who, realizing the greatness of these wines, was the first to want to commercialize them in order to offer the entire world the chance to experience this tasting moment, considered at the time as “the ultimate in French Champagne.” At Bollinger, this exceptional cuvée would be called R.D. for “Recently Disgorged,” and its labels would be the first in history to bear a disgorgement date. 

Since 1952, a portion of La Grande Année has been kept in the cellars and disgorged at a later date, after much longer time (about 8-20 years) on the lees. It is released as Extra Brut, with only 3-4 grams of residual sugar per liter. It is bold and powerful but well-balanced, revealing a beautifully aromatic potential and an extraordinary brilliance. 

From a wine of utter charm, La Fleur-Petrus has through the developments of the last 20 years become a wine of profound depth and complexity, all the while retaining its irresistible, seductive edge. You could even call it the archetype of  Pomerol.

Today the estate is composed 90% of Merlot with an average vine age of 30 years and 10% of Cabernet Franc with an average vine age of 50 years. Christian Moueix’ obsessive work in the vineyard focuses on sap flow and the treatment of each vine individually. In the cellar, vinifications are extremely precise but quite traditional.

What a story. Etienne Guigal, working in the cellars of a local winery, is swimming in the Rhone river off the docks near the Chateau d’Ampuis. He meets a lovely girl, who works as a maid at the Chateau d’Ampuis, a historic property whose oldest sections date to the 11th century, where Kings of France have visited and slept, and symbol of the town of Ampuis and the world-renowned Côte-Rôtie vineyard area for ten centuries. In 1995, 7 years after Etienne passed away, his son Marcel Guigal purchased the Chateau, and spent 11 years restoring it, with over 100 people working on the project, all overseen by France’s Chief Architect of Historic Monuments. 

Early on, when the Guigal family learned that there was at one time a wine produced with the Chateau d’Ampuis name, and they were able to trace the vineyards that were used in this original wine, they decided to produce an exceptional wine that would showcase the best that Côte-Rôtie has to offer.

Ayala Brut Majeur perfectly embodies the Chardonnay-focused style of Ayala. This cuvée showcases the brand’s dedication to balance, precision, and finesse, with low dosage and stainless-steel vat vinification to preserve the primary aromas. An extended three-year aging on lees further refines its character. Brut Majeur is crafted from over 70 crus across the Champagne region, including the Côte des Blancs, Montagne de Reims, Vallée de la Marne, Aube, Vitryat, and Sézannais. During vinification, each cru, grape variety, and year is fermented in one of 120 individual stainless-steel vats, ensuring that each element’s personality is maintained in the final blend. The result is a Champagne of extraordinary diversity, reflecting the richness of the region’s terroirs.

Condrieu is one of the most exotic and distinctive wines in the world, with its intense aromatics and flavors of apricots, white peach and citrus, and its luscious, almost umami body. It happens to come from a dramatically steep area, and one so small that were it not for several influential people, Marcel Guigal among them, the appellation and its Viognier grape would have been swallowed by history.

Crozes-Hermitage brings you into the Northern Rhône Valley, where the red wines have a profile unlike anywhere else in the world, an irresistible combination of warm flavors of red and black fruit, exotic spice notes, and certainly in the case of Crozes, with pleasure and approachability in youth.

It’s important to note that most of Crozes-Hermitage is produced from the plains to the south and east of Hermitage, and these wines tend to be straightforward. Guigal’s approach is to make a more serious Crozes that also has vigor, intensity and depth. In Guigal’s hands, Crozes becomes a wine that delivers quality and pleasure far beyond its price.

Marcel Guigal is the single person most responsible for bringing this historically great wine region to prominence. The Northern Rhône Valley is the cradle of wine civilization in France, with vineyards planted today on the same spot where they were planted 2,500 years ago by Romans, and it offers a completely unique profile of wines that are so expressive and bring so much pleasure, yet satisfy the most intellectually thirsty drinker. To put it simply, Marcel Guigal transformed Côte-Rôtie, the world’s perception and love for the wines, and now with his son he has not stopped leading his obsessive attention to detail and quality.

Just as the spice traders of old, we risk all in search of exotic flavors. We join you in the hunt for those elusive spices that fascinate our palates and capture our imaginations. Wine should be an adventure. Start your adventure now with this smooth easy drinking Shiraz Cabernet blend.

Messorio, a Merlot monovarietal, is the winery’s crown jewel. Its initial vintage was 1994, and since then it has received extraordinary acclaim, including a 100-point score from the Wine Spectator for the 2004 vintage. The name Messorio refers to the ancient Tuscan practice of wheat harvesting, the most important time of the year in the Bolgheri countryside – once it referred to wheat; these days, it is all about grape harvesting.

Heartland Shiraz is an elegant and pure expression of one of Australia’s most iconic varieties. The Langhorne creek climate and the sandy loam soils make for a Shiraz that is savory, rich and yet balanced and restrained.

Langhorne Creek is one of Australia’s most ideal climates for growing Cabernet Sauvignon and has the oldest recorded Cabernet vines in the world. The freshness brought to the area by the Lake Doctor effect described below means Langhorne is one of the places cool enough in South Australia for Cabernet to achieve structure and display characteristic savory notes.

Heartland’s flagship wine is made from the finest selection of Shiraz from each vintage. Directors’ Cut is the most powerful expression of Langhorne Creek – this soft and generous vintage has allowed the wine to display all its beauty.

Paleo Rosso has been called Italy’s landmark expression of Cabernet Franc. This grape variety is growing internationally as a distinct bottling, but Bolgheri has proven to be the single best place in the world to do so. The Mediterranean climate and surroundings result in a wine of extraordinarily expressive, sensual, and textural fruits and savory spices.

Directors’ Cut is Heartland’s most powerful expression of Langhorne Creek. The weight of fruit in this wine showcases how much Langhorne Creek Ben can fit into one bottle. An almost impenetrable core of fruit is seasoned with dark spice like licorice, nutmeg and anise

The best grapes from the finest vineyards in Langhorne Creek are recruited to create Heartland One. 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Shiraz, a long and relatively cool ripening season allowed for full development of the fruit flavors. The wines retain their natural acidity while conveying the full range of fruit flavors and deep colors.

Bolgheri Rosso is a refined, irresistible blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah, serving as an introduction to the estate. The wine is, frankly, almost too good at the price. All the intensive artisanal work that Le Macchiole carries out in its vineyards and cellars benefits this wine, and despite more availability than its Paleo Rosso, Messorio and Scrio siblings, it sells out nearly as quickly.

Bolgheri Rossi is also the youngest of Le Macchiole’s wines, first produced in 2004. The objective: to make a Bordeaux blend, but typical of Bolgheri.

Mounir Saouma’s story in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape started with a state sale of a small plot in Pignan, one of the most famous vineyard areas of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Within this first vineyard acquisition, Mounir has one plot of 100% Grenache planted in the 1930s which yields naturally at a miniscule 1 ton per acre. From these vines he produces Arioso.

In the northeast of the appellation facing “the giant of Provence”, the massive Mont Ventoux mountain”, Pignan’s exposure brings freshness to the natural high ripeness achieved in this area. The rocky and sandy soils of this original plot add a sense of elegance. When you start tasting you understand why some have compared his wines to the great Rayas wines of the 1980s or, perhaps as expected given Mounir’s renown as owner and winemaker of Lucien Le Moine, to Burgundy. The sheer density of the low yielding, old vines dances with the freshness and elegance provided by the site. On the label is aptly explained: “Arioso is a style of opera somewhere between an aria and a recital. We chose this name for our wine because it is evocative of both the ethereal and profound”.

Mounir Saouma likes to describe Chateauneuf-du-Pape as a mosaic, with all the wild traditions and differences together making for very different interpretations. Omnia, Latin for “all,” is his attempt to encompass the entire region’s terroir and winemaking history (and perhaps future) in one glass. The fruit comes from 9 vineyard parcles across all 5 of the Chateauneuf communes, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Courthezon, Sorgues, Bedarrides and Orange (in early vintages, when the Saoumas did not have all the vineyards they have today, they would purchase fruit; today, Rotem & Mounir Saouma is 100% Estate). The wine is then vinified and aged in foudres, cement and 500 liter barrels – a little bit of everything.

The aging is as Mounir ages his Burgundies: extremely long, never racked, no fining, no filtration. It would be easy to say that we expected the experience running one of Burgundy’s leading producers, Lucien Le Moine, would show in Mounir’s wines. But the actual results need to be tasted to be believed and understood: a wine with beguiling fruit and savory richness, yet extraordinary finesse and detail.

Special Cuvée stands apart from any Champagne category for four reasons: an unrivaled devotion to Pinot Noir, barrel fermentation, the use of Reserve Magnums, and aging far beyond appellation requirements. More than any other house, Bollinger is defined by Pinot Noir, which anchors the blend at a minimum of 60%, delivering the richness, structure and red fruit depth that are the house’s unmistakable signature. As the rest of Champagne moved to large-lot fermentation in stainless steel through the latter half of the 20th century, Bollinger held firm. A remarkable 30% of Special Cuvée is still fermented barrel by barrel, because no other method produces the same depth of flavor or the same round, silky texture. Hand-disgorged into the final blend are wines from the best vineyards aged in magnum under cork for up to 15 years, contributing the truffle, ginger and walnut notes that only truly aged Champagne can offer. With cellar aging more than twice the appellation minimum and a release age of seven to eight years, Special Cuvée is the fullest expression of what devotion, time and terroir can achieve.