2016 Bollinger "B16" Brut Champagne
96JS
94RP
93DC
93VN
$154.99
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New York City: 7 | Redwood City: 2
96
James Suckling
Reviewed July 2025A sophisticated champagne with extremely refined character and linear phenolics that give it length and class. It's medium-bodied with grapefruit and apples as well as pie crust. Bright acidity at the end. A blend of 72% pinot noir and 28% chardonnay. Dosage 4 g/L. Drink or hold.
Professional Reviews
94
Wine Advocate
From a relatively cool, mildew-pressured year that did not deliver sufficient fruit for Aÿ to serve as the principal component—and thus precluded the making of La Grande Année—Bollinger instead opted to release the 2016 B16. Disgorged in November 2024 with a dosage of four grams per liter, the wine unwinds in the glass with aromas of yellow apple, mirabelle plum, honeysuckle and bergamot mingled with freshly baked bread and a faint hint of passion fruit. Full-bodied and elegantly muscular, the palate offers a rich, sweet core of fruit, racy acids and an animating pinpoint mousse, concluding with a long, enveloping finish. Vinified entirely in barrels, it comprises 27% Chardonnay and 73% Pinot Noir—principally from Bouzy, Tauxières, Verzy and Verzenay—and will reward additional aging on cork. (KK)
93
Decanter
In 2013, Bollinger did not release a Grande Année but did offer its B13, a single-vintage take on a year considered atypical for the Bollinger style. The concept is repeated in the tricky but ultimately fine quality 2016 harvest with the B16. It presents a relatively delicate, cool and understated vintage relative to the Grande Année. The ripeness of the Pinot Noir is certainly present in the juicy stewed apricot and fresh raspberry fruit, but Chardonnay here brings gentle orchard fruit and fresh grapefruit zest beneath subtle richness of toasted nut and oyster shell complexity from ageing. While Grande Année offers more intensity and drama, and the latest PN series offers dynamism and youthful energy, B16 is perfectly pitched between smooth maturity and approachable brightness, all at a temptingly moderate premium over the non-vintage cuvée. (TH)
93
Vinous
The 2016 B 16 is a small bottling from Bollinger that takes the place of the Grand Année, as conditions did not allow Bollinger to bottle their flagship cuveé. Brisk floral top notes give this mid-weight, expressive Champagne a good deal of immediacy. The blend is 73% Pinot Noir and 27% Chardonnay, with the Chardonnay very much in evidence. Dosage is 4 grams per liter. Disgorged: November 2024. (AG)
Details
| Origin | Champagne, France |
|---|---|
| Type/Varietal | Other White Wines |
| Alcohol Content | 12% |
| SKU | 1979711 |
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