(2021) What a fabulous wine this DP 2006 is, from a generally dry and warm vintage. There's a fabulously flinty, seal-salt and minerals quality on the nose, the wine immediately suggesting power and great concentration. It is gently toasty, all those complex reductive notes making for endlessly fascinating aromatics. In the mouth it is taut, intense and equally concentrated, but this is not a brawny wine; instead the sinew connects clean, powerful lemon rind and creamy fruit notes that have a certain fat, but no excess. It's a wine that edges on phenolic, with some tannin giving real authority, but somehow it is charming too with its balance and fruit purity. A terrific DP.

(2020) The blend is 92% Pinor Noir from Ambonnay (4%), Aÿ (14%), Bouzy (23%), Verzy (37%), Verzenay (14%), and  8% of Chardonnay (Le Mesnil-sur-Oger).  The wines was disgorged January 2018, with a dosage of 6g/l. Biscuity aromas to the fore, with notes of almond and chocolate.  The palate has a firm line of acidity that gives way to stone fruits mid-palate, the aromas then turn full circle and closes down to a long, chalky minerality on the finish.  The long lees aging has enriched the wine with a complex, yeasty richness that feels immediate, but experience tells me to wait for the fruit to build.  Impeccably balanced, this will reward cellaring and should drink well from 2023-2040.

(2019) From magnum, and tasted and scored blind. Spring frosts resulted in large losses and extremely low yields. There was a lack of cultivation in 1917 and 1918, the vineyards sited in combat zones. Cepage unknown, disgorged 1969. Deep, burnished colour. Clearly very old. Like and older white Burgundy, with waxed parcel string, nutty apple and hints of truffle and toffee. Fabulous sweetness and a trace of bubbles on the palate. The palate filled with sweet fruit, clearly very old, but there's a freshness here from magnum, a hint of buttery Brazil nut fat, and that sweet finish of both fruit and, I suspect dosage, but wonderful and still showing great balance. Turns out to be the 1918 vintage. Pinot Noirs from Bouzy and Aÿ, almost no Verzenay because Phylloxera had decimated the vineyards, Mesnil sur Oger for the Chardonnay. Not available to purchase.

(2019) This tasting note comes from the launch of the 2008 vintage of La Grande Année at Champagne Bollinger's cellars. A full report on an extraordinary event and other wines tasted will follow. The blend is 71% Pinot Noir, 29% Chardonnay from 18 crus, mostly Aÿ and Verzenay for the Pinot, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Cramant for the Chardonnay. The wine has 8g/l of residual sugar. Super fresh, intense and tight at this stage, gentle creamy autolysis from nine years on lees, lovely delicate truffle and floral notes, subtle nutty apple and creamy fruit in a wine that is tightly-wound, but just hints at hazelnut polish and depth. The palate is sweet-fruited and has an apricot and peach flesh juiciness, it is also long and beautifully fresh with a shimmer to the acidity. This is a taut and vital Bollinger LGA, fabulous concentration and surely destined to be a great wine within the considerable lineage. Tasted from magnum the immediately has more sense of depth and sumptuousness, but so incredibly vibrant. Obviously the same wine, but the expressive dial just notched up half a point. And tasted from jeroboam, superb again, a little tighter and more obviously youthful character. So nutty, the reductive notes very apparent, but tight and fabulous streaking freshness.  Note that the wine will sell-out very quickly.

(2018) 2008 was a marathon harvest for Dom Pérignon (lasting almost an entire month from start to finish).  The nose is classically 'Dom Pérignon': supremely fresh, with a polished, flowery autolytic character adding an extra dimension to the forceful fruit and toasty aromas. A real zingy kick of acidity leads initially on the palate, as the mid-palate develops, the fruit gains momentum, the acidity integrates. The finale is exceptionally youthful, long, bitter and dry. Clearly ripe, and showing weightless concentration. Nervy and tense, sacrificing width in exchange for length. This is a supreme Dom Pérignon of cracking complexity, that will join the pantheon of great DP’s. Potential to reach 98/100 (magnums likely to score higher). Drink 2023-2048.

(2018) Wind currents from the north worked to dehydrate the grapes on the vine.  This is a super-concentrated vintage in Champagne, although it appears that many wine-makers haven’t grasped the oxidative nature of the vintage and protected the wines accordingly. Nevertheless, it is a grand vintage, and a grand Dom Pérignon.  Although I have experienced some bottle variation, the best examples of ’02 have neutron-star-like density, immense richness and a long, honeyed sweetness.  We will need to wait for the complexity and finesse, but it will come, so my score of 96/100 is based on potential. At time of this review? Maybe 93/100. Drink 2022-2042.  (The “P2” has just been disgorged ready for release in 2019).

(2018) The vintage I have drank the most (more than 20 occasions) and a wine that is developing so slowly that it appears to be held in suspended animation. When first released, this was zesty and mouth-watering, the bracing acidity held in check with a decent level of sugar in the dosage: compact, cool-fruited, and very tasty. The acidity has calmed down in the intervening years, aromatic volume and complexity is building, although the tiny spike of greenness is ever-present in the background.  Becoming nicely toasty. Such a shame there are no magnums! Drink 2018-2035.

(2018) I really do love this vintage, such beautiful toasty richness, a real palate staining intensity of fruit.  This Champagne is a sinewy, broad shouldered beast, but never feels overly fat or heavy.  A long finish you can almost chew on, and so complex.  Solid potential for a score of 96/100.  Drink 2020-2045

(2018) Following the heat and tiny yields of the previous vintage, the vines responded with vigour in 2004, producing grapes generous in both quantity and quality.  A 'classic' (or perhaps more accurately 'old fashioned') DP, the 2004 is leaner in style, pretty and flowery, demonstrating diffuse sweetness of fruit.  Toasty aromas beginning to develop.  Just coming out of its shell after an adolescent grumpy phase that many ‘04’s have been going through, this has a bright future.  On potential, 96/100.  Drink 2018-2040.

(2018) Fabulous nose, a little complex sulphide character, so mineral and flinty, adding to the russet apple and those complex white flower and delicate nutty characters. The palate is tight as a drum, with lime and grapefruit driving the acidity, but a sense of burgeoning richness hangs from that spine of acidity, meaty and concentrated, with such a dense and supple fruit concentration, sweet and powerful and profound. Disgorged 2012.  There are no UK stockists for this vintage listed at time of writing.