Bollinger Pinot Noir TX 17 2017

A finely detailed Champagne, with pointillist bubbles softly bursting on the palate, carrying a delicate, layered range of ripe raspberry and yellow peach, candied ginger and crystalized honey, chopped nuts and fleur de sel. Minerally chalk and saline accents drive the finish. Disgorged February 2022. Drink now through 2025.

This is an especially vinous, layered Champagne that offers striking interplay between its intense fruit and the mineral, saline and savory-laced frame that holds it all together.

From the commune of Tauxières and the 2017 vintage, Bollinger's new NV Brut Blanc de Noirs PN TX17 exhibits aromas of crisp pear, orange zest and wet stones mingled with subtle hints of warm bread and dried fruits. Medium to full-bodied, pillowy and fleshy, with tangy acids and impressive ripeness for the vintage, it concludes with an elegantly mordant finish. This doesn't strike me as a year built to make old bones, but it should nonetheless enjoy over a decade's evolution.

As with the PN VZ16, the NV Champagne Blanc de Noirs PN TX17 Brut was fermented half in barrels and half in stainless steel. It is also 100% Pinot Noir, mostly from the village of Tauxières, predominantly from 2017, with reserve wines contributing to the blend. Floral on the nose, with yellow orchard fruit and baked bread, it is ripe but more linear in its approach and follow through. It's a very pretty wine to drink over the next 10 years. Disgorged February 2022.