What do Hawaiian pizzas and retro ham glazes have to do with champagne? More than you’d think, actually – especially if the champagne in question happens to be a bottle of Bollinger La Grande Année 2018.
It all comes down to tinned pineapple. Yes, the same slightly syrupy fruit that defined mid-century dinner parties has subtly popped up in one of Champagne's most serious wines. I appreciate that sounds more alarming than appetising, but trust me, it’s delicious.
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What started as a decidedly soggy 2018, with an exceptionally wet winter and a late start in the vineyards, abruptly shifted into temperatures and sunshine hours that ran well above the 10-year average. Grapes ripened so fast that picking began in August, making it (at the time) the earliest harvest on record.
Now, heat like that doesn't always end well. The last time the region properly cooked, in 2003, a lot of the wines came out too ripe and too soft, missing the freshness that makes champagne taste like champagne. Bollinger didn't even put the Grande Année name on its 2003, releasing a one-off "2003 by Bollinger" instead.
Unlike 2003, 2018 got lucky. All that winter rain soaked into Champagne's porous chalky soil and fed the vines throughout the heat of summer, so the grapes ripened without frying and kept their freshness intact. The result is a riper, rounder Bollinger than we might be used to, yet still beautifully balanced. It's delicious now, but give it a few years for all that sunshine to settle and fruit to open up, and I think it'll be even better.
It was fascinating to try alongside a glass of 1995 Grande Année. If the 2018 is the fruit bowl, the 1995 was pure bread basket. Almost fizz-free to the naked eye, on the nose DOUGH, and enough weight on the palate to feel more white Burgundy than champagne. A glimpse of where the 2018 could end up, perhaps, if you can bear to wait a casual 30 years.
New flavours aren't the only thing to get excited about. The 2018 harvest kicked off a trilogy of warm, yet seriously good vintages (2018, 2019 and 2020) that insiders are already comparing to champagne's holy trinity of 1988, 1989 and 1990, an era collectors still get misty-eyed about.
It's also the last Grande Année signed off by respected former cellar master Gilles Descôtes, and its launch doubled as the opening of Bollinger's huge new barrel cellar in Aÿ, built in tribute to his skills and uncompromising standards. All of which lands, rather conveniently, as the house counts down to its bicentenary in 2029.
That’s a lot to raise a glass to, but this particular champagne has even bigger ambitions. We tend to treat champagne as punctuation: one glass at the start, a toast, then everyone retreats to the approved dinner-table red for mains.
Yet a Pinot-heavy, barrel-fermented wine like this has the weight to carry an entire meal, and the Sydney launch certainly wasn't going to let it off easy.
Dinner was unapologetically French, with Porcine’s brilliant Nik Hill at the helm, which meant pâté en croûte stuffed with chicken and lobster, a glossy galantine of duck, and fish bathed in a buttery emulsion. No messing around – and the GA passed with flying colours.
But now, for the curveball. My favourite might actually have been the rosé. Bollinger held out on rosé for decades – Madame Bollinger was famously reluctant – and only released its first permanent, non‑vintage rosé in 2008, after more than six years of trying to get it right.
La Grande Année Rosé begins with the same base wine as the blanc, with 5% red wine from La Côte aux Enfants in Aÿ added to the blend. It’s beautiful, with a pleasant, almost bitterness, mitigating any of the cloying sweetness that gives pink wine a bad name. And most importantly, unlike the blanc, it doesn't ask you to wait. It’s drinking incredibly well straight away.
So I'm calling it early. This might just be a rosé summer, and not just for the girls. But honestly, why choose? Have both.
Bollinger La Grande Année 2018 and La Grande Année Rosé 2018 are available now from selected wine merchants.