James Halliday – JAMES HALLIDAY - HALLIDAY'S WINE COMPANION From old estate vines yielding 1.5t/ha picked on a new moon day with a solar eclipse, wild-fermented in terracotta eggs, 86 days on skins, pressed to 4 French barrels (3 new), matured for 6 months. A totally harmonious medium to full-bodied cabernet, all the components precisely (naturally) calibrated; supple cassis, olive and bay leaf keep watch. 1080 bottles made.

World Wine – “Barthelemy” is Le Puy’s crowning achievement—the fruit is from their greatest, highest-altitude, poorest-topsoil site, which is treated even more minimally in the cellar than the “Emilien” above, and released several years after bottling. Like the Emilien, the Barthelemy is fermented in huge cement vats without human involvement. But, whereas the Emilien spends its first year in large foudres and its second in barriques, the Barthelemy is moved directly into barriques—gross lees and all—for its two-year elevage. During that time, it is “dynamized”—stirred gently in alternating clockwise and counterclockwise strokes—at each full moon, and the lees are subsequently subsumed over time. This ultra-labor-intensive method nourishes the wine and protects it against oxidation, and no sulfur is applied at any point in the process, from harvest to bottling. Even so, the Barthelemy is perfectly stable and can age for many decades, as proven stunningly in a one-hundred-year vertical tasting the Amoreaus hosted in New York last year. 85% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon..

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate –

Huon Hooke –

Decanter – "The 2019 demonstrates all the wild, penetrating characteristics of this site but it comes into harmony quickly, revealing its balance and precision. Wood-driven top notes of smoke and vanilla meld into pressed violets, rosemary and liquorice. Luscious red cherry and dark plum flesh are wrapped in long, layered chalky tannins. Across the palate there's an energetic beam of unwavering acidity, giving the wine a linear feel. The finish reverberates with fennel and crushed stone."

James Halliday – "You'd stand up for royalty, and that's this wine. To use the spit bucket is lese majeste. Just savour it, drop by drop, as it magically finds its way unbidden down your throat. It's got the full rainbow of cool-grown shiraz flavours, a conjunction with a year made for it by Dionysis, and, glory be, comes with a screwcap." - James Halliday

World Wine – "The bombastic complexity that defines Bollinger rises to a grand and flamboyant crescendo in the mighty 2012 season. True to the vintage, it presents a medium straw hue, deeper in colour, tone and mood than the dynamic 2008 before it. The pure red and black cherries of ripe pinot noir from the grand slopes of Aÿ are masterfully toned by the perfume and energy of the north-east-facing hillside of Verzenay, backed by the citrus zest of Le Mesnil and Oiry chardonnay. It’s simultaneously ripe, juicy, zesty and tense, with fruit presence of tantalising beauty seamlessly fused with fine chalk minerality and an acid line of sensational drive, yet at every moment perfectly ripe and effortlessly integrated. Fruit rightly takes a confident lead here, with the fig, spice, honey and roast almond of barrel fermentation and bottle age welling up in a rising background chorus. The modern era of Bollinger’s attentiveness in the vineyards and cellar characterises a style ever more pure and seamless. This does nothing to diminish the multifaceted layers of signature complexity of Bollinger. Indeed, it somehow manages to pull off the feat of achieving precisely the opposite, magnifying and focusing its myriad details with greater clarity than ever. This serves to present the mood of the season with more articulate typicity than ever, while celebrating all of the rumbling depth and power that we love of Bollinger. While it won’t live as long as the enduring 2008 (no house will) it achieves equal heights of fantastic line and incredible length. The result is consummately 2012, emphatically Bollinger and gloriously, irresistibly delicious." 98 points, Tyson Stelzer

Robert Parker/Wine Advocate –

Huon Hooke –