01-08-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Champagne and other tasty bubbles for all budgets
Bollinger headed up Bollinger Champagne for 30 years, after being widowed in 1941 by third-generation owner Jacques Bollinger. She spent those decades making the most of her access to some of the finest wine known to mankind (Champagne being, primarily, a wine).
Most of us mortals don't get to drink Champagne so frequently: neither our pockets, our diaries nor our livers could afford it. But she makes an excellent point about the versatility of Champagne and indeed other bottle-fermented sparkling wines produced with the same traditional method like crémant and cava. As complex wines, they can be paired with any part of a meal, from aperitif through starters, mains and desserts, or they can be enjoyed as a solo treat or as the heart of a party.
Champagne is traditionally a blend of three local grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Where Chardonnay brings grace, elegance and light, the pinots bring red fruit notes and structure. Bollinger is long beloved for it high Pinot Noir content, but its PN series takes that further, with each year's release featuring exclusively Pinot Noir Champagnes and showcasing a specific subregion.
Today's wine of the week is the latest release: Bollinger PN TX20 blends five components of Pinot Noir-based Champagne. The two base wines were from the 2020 vintage, from two adjacent vineyards in Tauxières, one chalk-based, one clay-based. Both were vinified and aged as Champagne, and then blended with three older 'reserve' wines, from 2019, 2012 and 2008. The result is extraordinary and worthy of a special intimate celebration. You'll find earlier releases like PN VZ19 (€130) and PN AYC18 (€140) in Bubble Brothers, Brown Thomas, The Corkscrew, Mitchell & Son and Jus De Vine.
I've also included four other bubbles of very different styles and prices. The pet nat is for purists, the prosecco delivers well above its affordable tag, and both the cava and crémant are made in Champagne's traditional method at a fraction of the price. Or, from France's favourite champagne producer, O'Brien's now has the keenly priced Nicolas Feuillatte Reserve Exclusive Brut Champagne (€40, from €50): bright with brioche, white flowers, lemon and apricot notes, mineral bite and a properly dry finish, serve as an elegant aperitif or with crab or oysters.
Wines of the week
Bollinger PN TX20, Champagne, France, 12.5pc, €130
Just landed in Ireland, this superb new release from Bollinger's exclusively Pinot Noir 'PN series' showcases the warm, wet 2020 vintage in two adjacent vineyards in Tauxières. Complex, creamy and perfumed notes of mirabelle plums, raspberry and bergamot with an earthy backdrop and a textural quality, this is chalky, nervy and mineral with sweet subtle spice notes of vanilla, tonka bean, clove and hay. Magic with grilled lobster or any umami-rich shellfish; savour with someone special rather than a crowd. Grapevine Dalkey and independent stockists
Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG Extra Dry 2024, Italy, 11pc, €13.49
Clean and fresh with fine, fully sparkling bubbles (spumante style, as opposed to lightly sparkling frizzante), this is a little sweeter than a Brut (extra dry means 12g-17g sugar per litre) but well balanced, with delicate peach and papaya, a zesty palate and dry finish. Perfect solo or with seafood nibbles. Lidl
Crémant de Bourgogne Mancey Brut Réserve, Burgundy, France, 12pc, €22.99 (from 25.99)
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Crémant is a French sparkling wine produced outside Champagne but in the same traditional method. This blends Chardonnay, Aligoté and Pinot Noir grapes to ripe, rich effect, with toasted nuts, brioche and baked apple balanced by citrus freshness. O'Briens Wine;
La Sapata Petiant Artizanal Bābeasā Neagrā Rosé, Romania, 12.5pc, €22.50
Pet-nat is made in the 'ancestral method', with secondary bottle fermentation. This rustic, unfiltered example from Podgoria Sarica Niculitel AOC will wake your palate with its tart freshness, before wooing it with fragrant apricot, mandarin and strawberry charm. Divisive, but delicious, especially with seafood ceviche. Wines Direct, Athlone and Mullingar;
Carles Andreu Brut Reserva DO Cava 2022, Serra de Prades, Spain, 11.5pc, €23.95 (from €27.25)
A case of this organic, grower-made cava would be a well-priced alternative to grower Champagne for a special gathering. Lees aged for 25 months, with blossom and brioche, lemon sherbet and green apple, good weight and a dry finish. Wines Direct, Athlone and Mullingar;
