A blend par excellence, the Special Cuvée is the purest expression of the Bollinger style; of its craftsmanship and its singular conception of what a champagne should be. It is, therefore, on this wine that the House of Bollinger shows how it is different from other Champagne Houses, asserts its qualitative policy and by which it asks to be judged.

Rating

Wine Enthusiast 94 points The Bollinger style is always rich, food friendly and impressive. This wine is all of those things, with power and intensity of flavor along with ripe fruit, a layer of toastiness and a dry aftertaste. This is a style of wine that can take even more bottle aging. Score: 94. —Roger Voss, December 01, 2005.  Wine Spectator 93 points Complex aromas and flavors of rose, grilled nuts, citrus and a gently oxidative note course through this muscular, full-bodied bubbly. Despite its power, there’s a gracefulness. The aftertase combines citrus and spice. Drink now through 2008. Score: 93. —Bruce Sanderson, November 15, 2004.  Burghound 91 points Here the expressive nose is extremely yeasty and deeply pitched with delicious, vibrant, and crisp middle weight flavors that are precise and clean on the long finish. This is a beautiful and relatively robust effort and I like the way everything is delivered with grace and authority with a firm but not aggressive backbone of acidity. This should be high on the list for those who enjoy cellaring NV examples as it will easily support 10 to 15 years of aging but can also be enjoyed now. A very solid effort at this level. Score: 91. —Allen Meadows,  Robert Parker 89 points No Specific Tasting Note. Score: 89. —Robert Parker, December 1994.

Wine maker notes

Bouvet Brut Saphir is an exceptional vintage-dated sparkling wine produced predominantly from Chenin Blanc grapes blended with a smaller proportion of Chardonnay from a single year’s harvest. Bouvet-Ladubay’s extensive production in its high quality non-vintage cuvées allows it consistent access to the production of Saumur’s finest vineyards in each vintage. The yields from the best of these microclimates, delivered as grapes and pressed at Bouvet’s facilities, are carefully evaluated in the most successful vintage years and set aside from the lots blended for non-vintage Bouvet Signature Brut. The base wines are vinified in computer-regulated, temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to preserve the delicate aromas and elegant fruit of the grape. The blenders, relying on talent, experience and technological support, select the wines to be assembled for this cuvée according to the elegance, complexity and balance each contributes to the finished wine. The second fermentation takes place in the traditional method developed by the champenois, in the bottle, following the addition of a small amount of sugar and yeast. The transformation from still wine to sparkling takes place in Bouvet-Ladubay’s cool, moist cellars, where the bottles are automatically riddled on computer-calibrated ”gyropallets,” which duplicate the hand-riddling process in a slightly shorter span of time. At each step of production, the most exacting standards of quality are applied to yield a handcrafted sparkling wine of superior character and refinement, expressive of its vintage year and representative of the signature ”Excellence” that since 1851 has been the foundation of Bouvet-Ladubay’s philosophy.

Technical notes

The blend rests essentially upon the Pinot Noir of grands crus and premiers crus The blends of Special Cuvée are on average composed of: 60% Pinot Noir 25% Chardonnay 15% Pinot Meunier 5 to 10% of reserve wines are incorporated into the blend. These reserve wines are kept by cru; by grape variety; by vintage, in magnums corked with real cork. This method is unique in Champagne and it enables Bollinger to keep its reserve wines for a long period without losing either their freshness or character. The veritable "library" of wines gives the House of Bollinger a vast and extremely precise palette to use for blending : the cru, grape variety, or year required can be selected to add the necessary touch to the blend for the Special Cuvée.