ComBo Louise Roederer Collection 243, Delamotte Brut, Bollinger special Cuveè Louis Roederer Collection 243 RP 92 Reviewed by: William Kelley Drink Date: 2021 - 2035 Based on the 2018 vintage and complemented by reserve wines from a solera established in 2012, as well as younger foudre-aged reserve wines, Roederer's newly released NV Brut Collection 243 is a pillowy, enveloping Champagne evocative of crisp stone fruits, honeycomb, white flowers and buttery pastry. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and generous, with an ample core of fruit, bright acids and a saline finish, it will offer demonstrative drinking on release. Delamotte Brut RP 90 Reviewed by: William Kelley Drink Date: 2021 - 2027 The latest release of Delamotte's NV Brut is especially charming, bursting with aromas of crisp orchard fruit, peach and freshly baked bread. Medium to full-bodied, pillowy and enveloping, it's a fleshy, giving wine that's ample and pliant, with a pinpoint mousse and a nicely defined finish. Production at Delamotte is 700,000 bottles every year. Published: Aug 31, 2022 Bollinger Special Cuvèe RP 92 Reviewed by: William Kelley Drink Date: 2021 - 2035 Like its rosé counterpart, the latest release of Bollinger's NV Brut Special Cuvée is showing especially well, bursting from the glass with aromas of honeyed apples, crisp stone fruit, buttery pastry, ripe lemons and fresh walnuts. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and vinous, with a deep core of beautifully ripe fruit, racy acids and a pillowy mousse, it's a charming, characterful wine that proves that Special Cuvée is firmly back where it belongs. I have tasted an excellent, beautifully fresh, precise and and persistent range of Bollinger Champagne. The Brut Rosé is just fabulous and helps to bridge the time we have to wait for the promising and highly refined 2007 Grande Année Rosé that still needs some years in the bottle to play out its class and complexity. 2007 saw a very early harvest, and the exceptional wines are characterized by freshness and finesse. For the moment, I prefer the very fine, elegant and chalky style of the Grande Année Rosé to the more rich and full-bodied Blanc. I'm also excited to follow the evolution of the 2004 R. D. Extra Brut that was just disgorged in February and combines freshness with maturity but will improve over the years. The 2014 La Côte aux Enfants, a 12% alcohol Pinot Noir from Aÿ, is a filigreed red Coteaux Champenois and is fabulous in its lightness, purity and elegance. However, it is still young and peppery and needs some years to gain more complexity. My recent visit to Champagne Bollinger focused on a mini-vertical of the house's R. D., soon to be chronicled in a separate report, but I also took the opportunity to look at new releases. One wine that I was quite unprepared for was the magical 2008 Vieilles Vignes Françaises: one of the very finest wines produced in this important vintage, and unquestionably the most powerful and dramatic Champagne of the year. More attainable for mortals, however, Bollinger's Special Cuvée is on fine form these days, reflecting efforts to ensure that it contains the maximum of wood-aged vins clairs, as well as farming that stands out as some of the best in the region—something that will safeguard this bottling's status as a benchmark in the years to come. There are plenty of projects afoot at Bollinger, as chef des caves Gilles Descotes explained to me during my early April visit—my first in some years to this important Aÿ-based domaine. One of the most important changes is that Bollinger has entirely abandoned the use of herbicides for four years now, an initiative that began with the impulse to rehabilitate their famed red wine monopole, La Côte aux Enfants, and which was gradually rolled out across all their holdings. Their facilities have expanded too, to make space for more barrels to insure a sufficiently abundant supply of wood-fermented base wine from the Special Cuvée in years when Grande Année is also produced. And the still red Coteaux Champennois from La Côte aux Enfants is returning to the range, from 2015 vinified separately from the red wines destined to rosé production, with some whole clusters added to the cuves. Descotes also has been working to better manage Bollinger's gently oxidative style, and while fermentation and maturation in old wood still lends Bollinger its strong and distinctive style, oxygen inputs at other stages in the winemaking process are more carefully controlled, resulting in more consistency and structural tension—a trend exemplified by the brilliant 2008 Grande Année (97+), which I reviewed last month. There's so much more to say about this house, but much of that can wait for an in-depth article in a future issue. For the time being, it's sufficient to note that all these recent releases come warmly recommended. Published: Aug 31, 2022 ATTENZIONE ASTA RICORRENTE PERTANTO LE FOTO SONO D'ARCHIVIO