2004 Delamotte Blanc de Blanc Millesime 750 ml

94-Point Delamotte Blanc de Blancs Champagne R.D.

In 1918, Jacques Bollinger assumed control of this family’s Champagne empire. Not long after, he married Elisabeth Law de Lauriston-Boubers — a visionary woman who felt far more comfortable going by her nickname, “Lily.”

When her husband passed away in 1941, Lily dove into the family business head-first, buying up vineyards left and right and then traveling the world singing the praises of Champagne. Quick-witted and always good for a memorable one-liner, Lily Bollinger’s most famous quote was the following:

“I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it — unless I’m thirsty.”

But even after 20 years at the helm of Champagne Bollinger, Lily’s imagination remained fertile. In 1961, she served a 1952 Champagne to a group of collector friends, each of whom marveled at the freshness of the nine-year-old wine. Then she unveiled her winemaking secret. The 1952 had been resting in the frigid Bollinger cellars for almost eight years before Lily instructed her cellarmaster to perform a novel technique that would soon shock collectors worldwide.

For hundreds of years, “riddlers” moved quickly through the limestone underground, turning bottles 1/8 of a turn on racks that stored the bottles upside down. “Riddling” forced dead yeast cells to the neck of the bottle where they would be subsequently removed by “disgorging” the Champagne, a process that called for freezing the neck of the bottle in an ice-salt bath, removing the cap and allowing the wine’s carbon dioxide to pop out the frozen plug. The cellarmaster would then top off the bottle with a sugary mix of white wine and brandy, before laying the wine down again for another three to five years before release.

Lily Bollinger had been tasting older bottles for over three decades, and as much as she enjoyed the complexities of aged Champagne, she wasn’t fond of the bitter, oxidative aromas that came into play. In the mid-1950s, she decided to conduct an experiment, instructing the Bollinger team to age the extraordinary 1952 Grande Année for eight years before popping the plug and refreshing the aged Champagne. In 1961, at the unveiling of the 1952 R.D. (“recently disgorged” in 1960), the “old” Champagne combined the aromatic complexities of bottle age with the honey/citronelle vibrancy of youth.

To this day, few Champagne houses practice the ingenious technique pioneered by Lily Bollinger. Those that do only employ the R.D. process in exceptional vintages. The going price for these incredibly youthful aged Champagnes typically starts at $100+ bottle — on release. The Bollinger 1975, 1990, and 1996 can be had on the auction market for $300-$750/bottle!

This is a rare opportunity to sock away a few bottles of the exquisite 2004 Delamotte Blanc de Blancs Champagne, crafted by Michel Fauconnet, the ingenious regisseur who splits his time between Delamotte and Salon.

Brilliant pale-golden to the rim, with microscopic bubbles of great persistence. The aromas alone are well worth the price of admission — a mouthwatering mix of lemon, apricot pit, and walnut, the complexities of extended bottle-aging heightened by the youthful exuberance of recent disgorgement. As always from Fauconnet, far more reminiscent of an effervescent First Growth Burgundy than Champagne, this is an extraordinary effort from the region’s most revered regisseur.

94 points from Antonio Galloni. $110 on release. Just $79/bottle today on WineAccess. Shipping included on 3. 240 bottles are up for grabs.