Bollinger La Grande Annee Brut 2012

Professional Ratings

• 97 Wine Spectator
  This goes from zero to 60 right out of the gate, with an intense spine of acidity driving tightly meshed flavors of crushed black currant, ground coffee, candied grapefruit peel and toasted almond. The profile expands on the palate, carried by the fine, raw silk–like mousse. Richly aromatic and expressive from start to lasting, spiced finish. Disgorged July 2019. Drink now through 2037.

• 97 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  COMMENTARY: The 2012 Bollinger La Grande Année Champagne is an outstanding wine from a legendary producer. One never turns down a "Bolly" under any circumstances. TASTING NOTES: This wine is complex and remarkable from start to finish. Enjoy its aromas of ripe stone fruit, creaminess, and compelling yeast autolysis with raw oysters topped with ikura. (Tasted: October 14, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
• 96 Wine Enthusiast
  Still young for a wine of this caliber, this rich Champagne has an immense future ahead of it. The freshness of the wine will mature into the rich toastiness that is such a hallmark of this brand. Oak fermentation and aging have added to the great promise of this fine wine. Drink from 2022.

• 96 Wine & Spirits

  A selection of pinot noir from Aÿ and Verzenay (65 percent of the blend) with chardonnay from Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oiry, this wine ferments and ages in oak barrels and large casks, followed by extended aging on the lees in bottle. There’s an immediacy to its bubbles, and a scent that is immediately awesome—lemon blossom, lemon verbena and something exotic, like Buddha’s hand. The flavors are classical, expanding outward as the wine develops with air, potent, salty and long. Once it’s gone, you can smell the ghost of oak in the empty glass, even if it wasn’t overt in the wine. This is a structured and long-lived 2012.

• 95 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  Disgorged in July 2019, Bollinger's 2012 Brut La Grande Année is showing well, offering up an incipiently complex bouquet of crisp yellow orchard fruit, fresh peach, orange oil, toasted walnuts and dried apricot that's still quite reserved with less than a year on cork. Full-bodied, deep and muscular, the 2012 is blockier and broader-shouldered than its 2008 predecessor, with a weightier and even more concentrated palate built around a bright spine of acidity, concluding with a chalky finish that carries appreciably dry extract. This isn't quite as elegant as the exquisite 2008, but it is a superb effort and obviously built to age.

• 95 James Suckling

  This makes a bold statement. Ripe, powerful and creamy with concentrated red-berry, nectarine, grapefruit and cashew aromas. I love the juiciness and brightness of this wine, which has such a long, graceful finish. Only 65% pinot noir, but it tastes like a lot more. 100% barrel fermentation and maturation.