Keith Pajonas

9.0

Orange marmalade, honey, all the great things — 14 days ago

Dawn E.

9.2

I think this might be my favorite wine from the Loire Valley! Hailing from the Anjou region, this wine is
pale yellow in color with a slight green tinge.
I am getting stoned fruits, honey, hazelnut, cheese rind, crushed minerals, floral of some sort, great acidity, and nice salinity on the palate, I am getting a super long finish! There is a lot going on in this glass! — a month ago

Louis Martin

9.3

Honey flavor with a pit fruit finish, smooth and rich, paired perfectly with an apple pie desert at a Commanderie de Bordeaux dinner at the Hope Club. — a month ago

Freddy R. Troya

9.0

Champagne Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut NV – Champagne AOC, France 🇫🇷

Overview
One of Champagne’s enduring benchmarks, Special Cuvée combines approximately 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, and 15% Meunier, with a significant portion of reserve wines contributing depth and consistency. Rich, layered, and unmistakably Bollinger, it delivers remarkable complexity at a price point that remains accessible compared to many prestige bottlings.

Aromas & Flavors
Golden apple, ripe pear, citrus zest, baked brioche, roasted nuts, and subtle spice unfold in layers. Notes of fresh bread dough and orchard fruit intertwine with hints of honey and toast.

Mouthfeel
Vibrant and energetic with a creamy mousse and impressive depth. A delicate kiss of yeast adds texture and contrast, while the wine’s concentration and freshness remain beautifully balanced through the finish.

Food Pairings
Lobster, seared scallops, roast chicken, truffle dishes, aged Comté, oysters, or simply enjoyed as a celebratory aperitif.

Verdict
A richly textured and multi-layered Champagne that continues to justify its reputation as one of the region’s benchmarks. Complex, expressive, and consistently rewarding, it offers a level of sophistication that punches well above its category.

Did You Know?
Unlike many large Champagne houses, Bollinger ferments a portion of its wines in old oak barrels and maintains an extensive reserve wine program, helping create the signature richness and depth that define Special Cuvée.

🍷 Personal Pick
Few non-vintage Champagnes deliver this combination of richness, complexity, and value. The layered fruit, subtle autolytic character, and vibrant texture make Special Cuvée one of my favorite benchmark Champagnes and a bottle I never hesitate to revisit. — 4 months ago

Conrad Green

9.4

Light amber. Showing secondary notes- dried apricot, honey, brioche. Good tension still and reasonable fizz. For my palate slightly past the best bottles I’ve had of this — 8 months ago

with Paul, Matt and 1 other

Conrad Green

9.2

Amber in color, limited bubbles. Pretty stuff- apricot, honey, some sherry notes. Toasted brioche. Definitely aged but lovely and balanced. Probably would have been oak a few years back — 4 years ago

with Tony and David

Vasanth Balakrishnan

9.2

#sauternes so sweet and balanced. Third of three bottles for my wife’s 40th birthday. We saved the best for last, as it turns out. Honeyed layers as this gently warms in a Burgundy bowl - caramel, marzipan, toasted almonds, some petrol, apricot jam. Tastes exactly how it smells with the acidity taking a step back from the honey sweetness swirling around a luscious oily mouthfeel. Touch of orange pith bitterness on the finish - lovely wine. Indeed it pairs well with Indian food but the force of this wine could have easily matched even spicier dishes. Beautiful wine and what’s amazing is it seemed this wine could easily go another 20 years. Good Sauternes is ever youthful. — 5 years ago

Andrew Cullimore

9.3

Medium lemon yellow . Quite closed at first , with some toasted brioche and touch of lemon peel , white flowers, stem ginger , quite rich impression . On the palate this is quite creamy and rounded , candied peel , honey , rich pastries , with quite high mineral tinged acidity . Good long , mineral tinged finish . Needs a bit more time though I don’t get the feeling this will be as profound or as long lived as the 2012. Better in 5 years and will continue to drink well a further 10. — 12 days ago

Tom Casagrande

9.3

Now this is a Chenin Blanc I can get behind! Slightly aging brassy gold. Nose is so nice: sweet, oozing, bruised orchard fruit, a floral/tropical note. Sweat (but not stinky sweat). On the palate it’s terrific. Like fresh sweet slices of Anjou pear. A very slight oxidative note (but not enough to turn me off), and some bitter honey. Long finish. — a month ago

"Odedi"

9.3

Light golden in color.

Beautiful nose of honeydew, apples, honeysuckle, tropical fruits, spices and melons.

Full-bodied with high acidity and long legs.

Sweet on the palate with apples, citrus, mangoes, spices, honeysuckle, herbs, honey and light earth.

Long finish with sweet honey notes.

This delicious 9 year old Sauternes is drinking beautifully now. Complex and interesting. Elegant and fruit forward. Nicely balanced with a nice mouthfeel.

Feels very fresh, but a bit subdued and earthier right now, compared to other vintages. Will continue to age nicely in the next 40 years.

Loved the nose more than the palate here. So expressive.

Wine Spectator 96 points. Robert Parker 99 points.

A blend of 75% Sémillon and 25% Sauvignon Blanc. Aged in all new French oak barrels for 24 months. Drank from a 750ml bottle.

14.5% alcohol by volume.

93 points.

$450. — a month ago

Amanda Drazka

9.6

This beautiful Sauternes offers a sweet nose of dried apricot with a full body on the palate. It has notes of tangerine, honey and spice with a velvety, long finish. — 6 months ago

Jeff Ryan

9.2

Honey right off the nose. Pleasant minerality soon follows — 7 months ago

Damian

9.4

First glass is fresh, driven by acidity, toast and orchard fruit. After some the acidity fades and gives way to creamy notes, caramel, hazelnut and honey. It also gave me a note of Werther’s Original candy. On the other hand the Chardonnay provides plenty of mineral and chalky notes. — 9 months ago

Conrad Green

9.6

Beautifully composed. Certainly aged with lanolin, gentle honey but still fresh, poised and beautifully balanced. Long and pure. Exceptional — 4 years ago

with Bex and Naoko

Vanessa

9.5

Let’s talk about SAVENNIÈRES!!!! 📣📣

Savennières is a small but mighty appellation (AOC), located in the Anjou subregion of the Loire Valley, France and specializes in still, dry Chenin Blanc wines. 🇫🇷

Its growing environment is apt for producing concentrated and ripe fruit, translating into wines with strong aromatic and flavor intensity and higher alcohol potential. 💪🏻 It’s no wonder this appellation is all about Chenin Blanc; Chenin has naturally higher acidity, which can help lend structure and balance to the final wine. ⚖️ 🙌🏻🙌🏻

The combination of these factors sets the stage for winemakers to produce some truly powerful and age-worthy whites that can improve, gaining complexity (and softening) with some time in the bottle. 🤔 🧐 Savennières has a reputation as a more serious, cerebral wine that is meant to be savored, especially when paired with a creamy seafood dish like Coquilles Saint-Jacques! 😋 🥘

🌿This particular wine is the Nicolas Joly, Clos de la Coulée de Serrant AOC (2019) hailing from the prized enclave of Coulée de Serrant AOC (within Savennières AOC), owned exclusively and farmed biodynamically by the renowned Nicolas Joly.

This wine is surely capable of aging for decades but tonight we opted to sip this golden wine during the golden hour with unseasonably warm, summery temperatures here in Minnesota.

🐝 🍯 In the glass, we found concentrated, layered notes of honey, beeswax, yellow apple, ripe apricot, quince, chamomile, dried & crushed white rose petals, toasted almond, hazelnut, cinnamon stick, nutmeg, acrylic paint, wet stones, salted caramel, & butterscotch.

It has texture (and finish) for days and a coating mouthfeel.

🫣 Its alcohol by volume clocks in at 15%!!! But it’s well-integrated and balanced by a crisp acidity and robust aromas and flavors. 👌 — 12 days ago

with Deked1

Sophia Alvarez

9.0

sweet but not too sweet. tastes like pear, apple, and honey — 3 months ago

Roberto Carli

9.6

Damn! It opened up with liquorice (sic.) and had just everything else in it. Mushrooms, turned earth, a touch of burnt honey and finally hiding just a hint of caramelized pineapple that lingers till the end. Sweetness only shows up for the grand finale in an jaw dropping show if how of how 95 g/l looks after 40 years — 4 months ago

Hermes Cuello

9.1

Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2015 is a legendary South African natural sweet wine, crafted from Muscat de Frontignan. Rich and opulent, it offers layers of honey, apricot, orange peel, and exotic spice, balanced by vibrant acidity. Lusciously sweet yet fresh and elegant, with a long, refined finish. — 7 months ago

Damian

9.4

Fresh but with some unexpected oxidative notes. Citrus, toast, white flowers, white pepper, stone fruit, precise and mineral driven — 10 months ago

John Willison

9.3

Raspberry, plum, cream, toast. — 4 years ago