Bollinger Breaks All Previous Records With Brand New R.D. - 2008 Bollinger R.D. Finally Available For Investment

”It is extremely fascinating how strong the scent memory can be. My experience was so intense that for a few seconds I really found myself in another era. Considering that after the 79' I have tasted hundreds of R.D. bottles from twenty or so other vintages, I initially found it remarkable and extremely fascinating.”

– Richard Juhlin

Richard Juhlin says the above after tasting the 2008 Bollinger R.D. He compares it to the 1979 vintage, although the 2008 gets one point more, and it thus ranks as the best Bollinger R.D. Juhlin has rated.

The 2008 Bollinger R.D. is available for investment, and it is not only the house's best R.D. release to date. It is also part of the highly coveted, exceptional, and elite 2008 category, which has already achieved benchmark status in Champagne. A category where there are very few new releases left to come. Read much more about the potential here.

Bollinger - Charisma, Complexity, And Quality

The Bollinger Champagne House dates back to 1585, but the name Bollinger was not attached until the House of Renaudin Bollinger was founded by Paul Levieux Renaudin, Hennequin de Villermont and Jacques Bollinger in 1829. And since then, the house has been producing amazing, complex, and refined Champagnes.

The foundation stones have thus been hardened over centuries. Hardened, proving that the foundations and traditions of the house are solid, rich, and steadfast. But it was not until the mid-20th century that the success of the house took shape and momentum. Here, Jacques Bollinger was in charge, and his marriage would prove particularly decisive in shaping the Bollinger house that the wine world knows and loves today.

Jacques married Emily Law de Lauriston Boubers (Lily Bollinger). And when Jacques died in 1941, Lily decided to carry on the house - and she did so to perfection. In the post-war period, she embarked on her global Bollinger promotional journey, infused with charisma and great professionalism.

Today, Bollinger is particularly famous for the vintage Champagne Grande Année, the single vineyard Champagne V.V.F (Vieilles Vignes Françaises), and the exclusive late disgorged prestige cuvée Bollinger R.D. (Récemment Dégorgé). These three all have inherent high quality and corresponding demand. The R.D. is just a little more unique as it is only produced in the very best vintages, which is why it has only been released 26 times since 1952.

Lily Bollinger thus became the woman behind the success of the house. And she is also the source of this quote, which always bears repeating:

“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.”

– Lily Bollinger

An Extraordinary Vintage - An Extraordinary Bollinger R.D.

The 2008 vintage in Champagne has already achieved legendary status. According to The Wine Advocate Vintage guide, only three vintages in the Champagne category have made it into the top classification: "Extraordinary", which requires a rating of 96-100 points. The Wine Advocate gives the 2012 vintage 96 points, the 2008 99 points, and the 1996 vintage 97 points.

For comparison, as many as 22 vintages are placed in the second-best category: 'Outstanding', which requires a rating of 90-95 points. The 2008 vintage in Champagne is thus not only in the rarely occupied "Extraordinary" category. It ranks at the very top - just one point away from perfection. Of course, legendary status comes in the wake of quality. The vast majority of 2008 Champagnes receive fantastic scores from the most prestigious critics, and the 2008 Bollinger R.D. is no exception.

With 97 points from Richard Juhlin, 98+ points from Wine Advocate and 96 from Vinous, 2008 Bollinger places itself as the absolute best Bollinger R.D. ever. Add to this that Richard Juhlin has only once before given a Bollinger R.D. 97 points, and that was for the 1996 vintage, which is also described as a sublime benchmark vintage in Champagne.

Of course, there will be 2008 releases that enjoy the success of the predicate, but 2008 Bollinger is not one of them. The 2008 Bollinger R.D. lives up to the vintage's deserved reputation and even breaks its own points record, previously held by its predecessor, the 2007 Bollinger R.D.

Historical Returns On Bollinger RD

There have been some great historical returns for Bollinger. Over the past five years, according to Liv-ex, the last five vintages of R.D. that have been on the market for at least five years^* have delivered an average return of 91.4 % - almost doubling in just five years.

Furthermore, if you had invested in the 2007 Bollinger R.D. through RareWine Invest when it had "best to date" status and "new release" in March 2021, you would have achieved a return of 33.3 % today - despite it being the newest in the market and actually available until now.

2008 has now taken both titles, and its vintage also has legendary status, a title it can never be denied.

*1997, 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2004.

Bollinger R.D. - A Micro-Production In The Land Of Champagne

Few champagne houses advertise the exact size of their Champagne production. However, Bollinger's former cellar master, Gilles Descôtes, told Decanter in 2018 that Bollinger accounts for less than 1% of all Champagne produced, and R.D. for less than 1% of Bollinger's entire production.

Approximately 300 million bottles of Champagne are produced each year. This means that, according to Descôtes, Bollinger produces three million bottles and 30,000 bottles of Bollinger R.D. per vintage.

Dennis Bunner, the new cellar master at Bollinger, says the house's 2008 vintage Champagne La Grande Année was released in 2019, while some of it was held back - either to be released a year later as Grande Année or to be used later as R.D. Bunner says that the house's Grande Année usually lasts for two years, but the 2008 vintage was different. Bollinger felt that it had fantastic ageing potential, so they decided to sell the Grande Année for only one year and save the rest for R.D. Although Bunner does not put numbers on his quote, we can deduce that more Bollinger R.D. has probably been produced than usual - even with a fantastic storage potential.

And although healthy skepticism is appropriate according to the above calculation, it is worth keeping in mind that both statements come from Bollinger itself - Bollinger R.D. is exclusive and rare: Even if the production of 2008 Bollinger R.D. is slightly larger than the usual 30,000 bottles produced per vintage.

RareWine Invest's Opinion

It is not every day that we can offer the opportunity to get in from the start. Especially when it comes to prestige Champagne from one of the best Champagne houses in the world. But such an opportunity is here.

2008 Bollinger can boast of belonging to a massively coveted and exceptional vintage in Champagne (in fact, the best according to Wine Advocate). 2008 Bollinger R.D. can even boast of being the best ever.

Bollinger R.D. has shown great historical returns - both in the long and short term, production is extremely limited for a Champagne. A 2008 predicate never goes out of fashion, but the quantities do not continue to exist. This is therefore a unique opportunity to get in on the action right from the start.

You do not have to be a big Bollinger fan or a late disgorgement aficionado. The 2008 Bollinger R.D. has the good qualities it now has, but most of all, we have almost seen all the great releases from the 2008 vintage. There are only a few left, so now is the last call to join in from the start.