Bollinger was established on 6 February 1829 in Aÿ, under the name Renaudin-Bollinger & Cie, by Athanase de Villermont, who supplied vineyard land, Paul Renaudin, who ran the cellars, and Jacques Bollinger, who managed sales; the house later took his name. The founder's grandson, also called Jacques Bollinger, took charge in 1918 and expanded the vineyard holdings. After his death, his widow, Lily Bollinger, ran the house from 1941 to 1971. Ghislain de Montgolfier, a descendant of the founding family, led the house from 1994, and in 2008 Jérôme Philipon became its first chairman from outside the family.
Bollinger owns close to 180 hectares of vineyard across villages including Aÿ, Verzenay and Louvois, over 85% of it rated Grand or Premier Cru, supplying more than half of the house's needs. Many base wines are fermented in oak barrels rather than steel tanks, and reserve wines are aged for years in magnum before blending; the house has kept written records of these reserves since 1890. Vintage cuvées are riddled and disgorged by hand and sealed under natural cork during cellar aging.
The Dynamic Cellars range includes three Bollinger vintages. La Grande Année, made from Grand and Premier Cru grapes and matured about ten years in the cellars, appears here as the 1990. R.D., meaning recently disgorged, a name settled on in 1967, is represented by the 1996, aged far longer than the appellation requires before its late disgorgement. Vieilles Vignes Françaises, an all-Pinot-Noir blanc de noirs from two ungrafted plots in Aÿ that survived phylloxera, appears as the 1996. These are Collector Wines (15+ Years), within our Champagne and Grandes Maisons selections.
