Champagne Bollinger B16

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of Champagne Bollinger B16.

Champagne Bollinger B16
$250, 12.5% alcohol, cork, Champagne/France.

Bready aromatics and an intense, long, powerful palate. Elegance is a key feature of this wine but it does not lack flavour or indeed presence. The strawberry notes here, both wild and concentrated, are clear and compelling; the nut, salt, baked apple, and candied citrus characters come served in deliciously harmonious form. There’s a subtle grip to this wine; there’s a feel to it. Its dying breaths, out through the finish, are too particularly well sustained. 94 points – Campbell Mattinson.

  • Bollinger’s “B” collection began in 2003 with By 2003. The B13 release came a decade later. This B16 is the third release in the series.

  • All the grapes came from Grands and Premiers Crus vineyards, mostly in latest-ripening areas of the Montagne de Reims.

  • Latest-ripening was important due to the unusual growing season. It was a cool year, even by Champagne standards, but it finished with a burst of warmth in late summer.

  • It spent seven years on lees and carries low dosage (4 grams).

  • It’s a blend of 73% pinot noir, 27% chardonnay.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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