Bollinger La Grande Annee 2018 Champagne - with Bollinger Flutes and Gift Box
La Grande Année is Bollinger's prestige cuvée, made only in years the house considers exceptional - and 2018 is rated among the finest in a generation, the first of a run of great warm vintages. A Pinot Noir-led blend with Chardonnay, drawn entirely from Grand and Premier Cru villages like Aÿ and Verzenay, it's fermented start to finish in small old oak barrels - a method almost no other house still uses - then aged on the lees for around seven years and riddled and disgorged by hand.
The result is rich and structured but still fresh: citrus and white peach, toasted almond and brioche, carried by the creamy mousse that marks the house. It comes in Bollinger's 1846 bottle, a small-magnum shape with a narrower neck and wider base that slows the wine's contact with oxygen and helps it age.
The set pairs the bottle with two Bollinger-branded flutes in the house's own gift box: a serious, vintage Champagne, the right glasses to drink it from, and nothing else to find or buy.