2014 Bollinger Champagne La Côte aux Enfants

From the estate’s historic single parcel of Pinot Noir, the 2014 Champagne La Côte Aux Enfants is very well detailed and takes things to the next level in this tasting. Readers may recall the 2014 La Grande Année Brut was our wine of the year in 2022, as it too was exemplary of finesse and elegance. The nose is floral and inviting, with layered depth of fresh baked croissants, strawberries, custard, orange blossoms, and fresh flowers. The palate offers a supple and full-bodied feel, with a silky texture, refined mousse, and a taught spine of acidity that creates a more linear drive for an all-around seamless finish. It is going to need some more time to drink over the coming 20 or more years.

As the celebrated Vieilles Vignes Françaises plots slowly succumb to phylloxera, Bollinger is introducing a limited production of Champagne from the celebrated Côte aux Enfants vineyard in Aÿ, which has long yielded red wines for the house's rosé wines. It's clearly a stunning site, with a huge natural undertow of stony, saline energy that is magnified by 2014's natural zip. Already it's a wine with a stunning compression of flavours waiting to emerge. There's a vein of roasted hazelnut, cocoa and nutmeg spiciness, and it's savoury and serious rather than sweet-toned, with charry roasted apricot and tangy greengage fruit. Complexities of honey, turmeric and iodine emerge with some time, as does a savoury hint of forest floor, that may build with time. The overarching impression, though, is of a wine of tremendous inner power and imperious build.

#1 - World's Best Champagne 2024 (BWW 2025)

The 2014 La Côte aux Enfants is a powerful, resonant Champagne. It emerges from north-facing parcels in a site best known for still reds. Kirsch, leather, spice, tobacco, ginger and cinnamon all build in the glass. Readers will find a Champagne that shows the wilder, gamier side of Pinot Noir allied to a good bit of supporting structure. This is a fine effort from Bollinger. Dosage is 6 grams per liter.

A wild, exuberant, single-parcel-driven champagne with tarte tatin, showing sliced cooked apples, an edge of acidity and plenty of pie crust. Mushrooms and light yogurt. Full-bodied, this has layers of exotic fruit and a long, long finish. Unctuous. All pinot noir. Drink or hold.