Fresh to death

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. After some time off, I’m happy to be back to my routine and taking steps towards crushing some goalz in 2024.

One that has kicked off in the last week is the opportunity to farm Riesling and make some wine. ✨Manifesting✨ 

Please keep your fingers crossed! I’ll be figuring everything out as I go, so no matter what happens it will be an interesting ride. I’ll post updates on Instagram @thirdplacewine, so be sure to follow my progress there!

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Another goal is a rededication to quality over quantity. For Third Place, that means reducing how frequently I write and let quality dictate length and publishing cadence. Towards the end of last year, I noticed that I began to dread writing. I had I lost sight of why I started this project in the first place:

Our lives are built on stories and we connect by sharing them.

A return to sharing my joy and nerdery with you looks like doubling down on stories that pique my curiosity enough to rabbit-hole over, and cutting out the rest. I’d be grateful for your feedback as things move along.

If you’re new here, welcome! If you like wine, join us:

Don’t forget you can check out my other posts and follow me on Instagram @thirdplacewine, and LinkedIn, too.

Today’s story is inspired by a happy discovery made while living one of my many nightmares: transferring through Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport. I’ve managed to avoid CDG like the plague for almost a decade just to have two exceptionally mediocre experiences in the last two months.

This time, the trauma was thrust upon me after a last-minute flight cancelation and rebooking. Here’s a photo of the hallway transferring between terminals—total standstill for almost two hours:

Fortunately, the rest of France makes up for CDG, starting with the wine at Terminal 2E’s duty free, where I found Bollinger RD 2008 hanging around at an incredible price—a consolation prize of sorts.

When recounting the unlikely find to my family and friends, I realized that there is a lot to explain around what RD is and why it’s so boujee.

So, for today’s story, I will talk about the origin story of RD, what disgorgement is, why RD is special, and how to drink it.

It began with a woman named Lily

Before we get to Lily, a little context for those who don’t know what RD stands for. RD is Bollinger’s prestige (that is, “top of the line”) bottling and it stands for “récemment dégorgé” or “recently disgorged” (no, it is not one’s state after too many drinks), conveniently forming the same acronym in both languages. You can see their main line up below.

RD was created by Lily Bollinger, the head of Bollinger from 1941 to 1971. Who was she?

Lily Bollinger is one of Champagne’s baddies, not only because of her sweet, sweet approach to drinking, but also because Bollinger leveled-up bigly during her 30 years at the helm.

Lily Bollinger (née Élisabeth Law de Lauriston-Boubers, 1899 - 1977) was the daughter of Baron Olivier Law de Lauriston-Boubers and Berthe de Marsay.

Some excellent Googling of French peerage reveals her dad was a cavalry squadron leader and her mom was a daughter of a viscount. The family owns the Château de Mousseau in Orbigny (Inde-et-Loire), which kind of reminds me of a reverse-colored Château de Montmélian for any INSEADers out there.

On 10 November 1923, Lily married the general manager and grandson of Bollinger co-founder Jacques Joseph Placide Bollinger (JJPB), Jacques Bollinger (1894-1941). It seems odd he wouldn’t get any middle names like his granddad—at least I can’t find any—so I guess he’s just Jacques. Importantly, they had no children.

Fun fact: JJPB was one of the many Germans who came to Champagne at the time, along with other big names Johann-Josef Krug and the Heidsiecks of Charles, Piper, and Heidsieck & Co Monopole fame.

In 1941, Just Jacques died, leaving Lily a 42-year-old widow and the president of Bollinger. As if it wasn’t challenging enough to be a woman leading a business in those days (or ever), Lily had the extra fun of steering Bollinger through the German occupation of France during World War II.

Fortunately, she had a deep understanding of winemaking and a good palate, which undoubtedly helped her to push for innovations that would not only elevate the house’s reputation to international prominence, but also contribute to the evolution of the Champagne industry.

See, Lily wasn’t happy to just maintain standards, she wanted to level up. During her leadership, she expanded Bollinger by purchasing additional vineyards. In 1967, she innovated by launching Bollinger RD, releasing three vintages in parallel: 1952 in England, 1953 in Switzerland and France, and 1955 in Italy.

Shortly thereafter, she launched the Vieilles Vignes Françaises (VVF) cuvée in 1969. VVF is a tiny vintage production from pre-phylloxera Pinot Noir vines located in Clos Saint-Jacques and Clos Chaudes-Terres, and is made to reflect Champagne as it was in the 19th century.

Along the way, she maintained some important traditional production methods which remain key to the famously-oxidative house style today, such as vinifying in oak. Oak is so important to Bollinger that they are one of the few remaining (if not the last) houses to have their own in-house cooperage.

Lily was also savvy enough to understand the importance of publicity. She was known for traveling the world to promote Bollinger, and as a result earned the nickname “the first lady of France” by Chicago’s American in 1961.

One of the most enduring alliances, which was cemented shortly after her retirement, is Bollinger’s collaboration with the James Bond franchise, which began with the 1973 film, “Live and Let Die”, where it first appeared on screen. Bollinger’s first film appearance by official arrangement was in “Moonraker” (1979).

If you want to get really nerdy, Bollinger was first mentioned in the novel, “Diamonds Are Forever” (published 1956), when Tiffany Case sends a quarter-bottle to James Bond’s cabin on the Queen Elizabeth.

Thanks to Lily, Bollinger was elevated to and remains a symbol of luxury and excellence. Its Champagnes are among the most traded on the secondary market, and it is among the last family-run Champagne houses of import.

What is Disgorgement?

Before we talk about RD and why it’s even a thing, we must first understand what disgorgement is. If you are not already familiar, this brief overview of the entire Champagne production process is requisite reading.

Disgorgement is the second-to-last step in the production of Champagne. It is the process of removing the sediment of spent yeast cells and other particles (lees) from the bottle after the secondary fermentation and aging. (The last step is adding any dosage and then corking the bottle.)

By law, Champagne must age on the lees for varying amounts of time according to whether it’s non-vintage or vintage. This is important because the reductive nature of lees protects and stabilizes the wine as it ages (reductive = reduced exposure to oxygen).

The minimum aging requirements for the different levels of Champagne are:

• Non-vintage: 15 months

• Vintage: 3 years

• Prestige: > 3 years

Aside from their reductive nature, lees also impart bready flavors of brioche, toast, biscuit, almond, hazelnut as well as a creamy texture. Just keep that tucked away in your mind for now.

Why is RD special?

There are number of things that make RD innovative, unique and sought-after, but if you take one thing home from this whole story, it’s that RD is known for its freshness.

How did Lily land on the concept of RD?

In 1960, there was a general trend for “prestige cuvées”—high quality wines sold for a lot of money. For reference, some prestige cuvées you may have heard of include: Dom Perignon (Moët et Chandon), Cristal (Luis Roederer), Sir Winston Churchill (Pol Roger), “All of them” (Krug, OK but for really reals Clos du Mesnil), Comtes de Champagne (Taittinger), etc.

Lily Bollinger wrestled with this concept of a prestige cuvée. She considered all of Bollinger’s wines to be top cuvées because of their high quality standards, and worried that creating a prestige cuvée would somehow cheapen Bollinger’s other wines.

Eventually in 1963, Lily, along with her American agent, made the decision to sell a few bottles of “Réserve 1947” to compete with the prestige bottlings of other Champagne houses. The idea she had was to do a late disgorgement and immediate release with an Extra Brut dosage (0-6 g/L of sugar). Voilà, RD was born. (As you know, in the end they went with the 1952/53/55 vintages in 1967.)

Sidebar: Generally speaking, while dosage can help balance a Champagne, it can also be used as make-up. That doesn’t mean that a higher dosage always equals the underlying wine is crap, but it does mean the lower the dosage, the better the underlying wine must be to stand on its own. 

Breaking down the concept Lily had, RD was meant to max out the complexity that comes from extended aging on lees of a vintage Champagne (so, an already exceptional Champagne) and the freshness that comes from releasing immediately after disgorging (as opposed to additional aging “on cork” before release).

The introduction of Bollinger RD in 1967 was considered groundbreaking in the world of Champagne. Lily's vision to age Champagne for an extended period challenged conventions and set a new standard for quality and innovation. Remember, not all wines can be aged, and extended aging demands high quality inputs.

Today, RD is made from Grand Années (GA), Bollinger’s vintage bottling, that undergo further aging before disgorgement—often over 4x the appellation minimum. So, if you see a GA on the shelves, wait a while and it’s likely—but not guaranteed—that you’ll see an RD a few years later. All RDs may be made from GAs, but not all GAs become RDs.

How do you drink RD?

With your mouth! Har har…

Seriously, while RD is meant to drink immediately to maximize freshness and fruitiness, you can also leave it on cork for another few years to allow further development of the type of complexity that comes with micro-oxidative aging sans lees.

One question that might cross your mind (at least it did mine) is: will leaving an RD on cork make it eventually taste the same as a GA?

The short answer is, “no”.

The longer answer is, while aging an RD on cork may introduce subtle differences over time through micro-oxygenation, and therefore lead to some convergence in aromas and flavors, the fundamental differences in the respective production methods for RD and GA preclude total convergence.

GA is built to reflect a specific harvest, or vintage. It follows a standard process for vintage Champagnes i.e. it is disgorged shortly after aging and then held for some time before release on cork.

During time on cork—this time without the protection of the lees—the wine starts a new life as it begins to slowly oxidize via micro-oxygenation, developing additional, oxidative complexity.

GA 2008 specifically was aged for 9 years on the lees, disgorged, then spent another year on cork before release in April 2019.

By comparison, RD is built for complexity and freshness. The starting point of an RD’s new life on cork after disgorgement is much later than that of a GA’s, thereby locking in more complexity on the lees than its respective GA has by the time it’s disgorged.

During its time on cork without the lees, an RD also begins its new life as it starts to slowly oxidize—but its respective GA will always be ahead of it in oxidative development. Quantum physicists may disagree, but this new life starting point cannot be rewound (for RDs) or fast-forwarded (for GAs) by additional time on cork.

RD 2008 specifically is a GA 2008 that continued aging on the lees (about 14 years total), with the first batch disgorged October 2022 and released in March 2023.

All that said, both Champagnes can stand further aging on cork, they just won’t ever taste the same.

My personal approach to drinking RD 2008 was to open the CDG duty free bottle immediately. I can confirm it’s not the worst Champagne you’ve ever had.

My RD 2008 at home will eventually be tasted side-by-side with a to-be-acquired GA 2008. Because I’m a nerd like that.

If you can swing it, I suggest you do the same. Life is too short to not be boujee. As Mahatma Gandhi never said: Be the bouj you wish to see in the world. 💅🏻

And speaking of boujee, I leave you with a little video on how to pronounce “Bollinger”.

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