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The 2017 Ornellaia Bianco is a slightly tweaked blend compared to the 2016 and includes a splash of Viognier. The blend is 91% Sauvignon Blanc and 9% Viognier, which is a combination you don’t see often, yet it makes sense, and the Viognier plays the role of Semillon seen in Bordeaux Blanc releases. Coming from a dry, hot year, it has a beautiful bouquet of Meyer lemons, honeysuckle, flowers, and hints of barrique. This carries to a seamless, full-bodied white that’s flawlessly balanced, has a bright core of acidity, ample mid-palate depth, and a great finish. It’s one seriously classy white I’d be thrilled to drink any time over the coming 4-5 years.Jeb Dunnuck | 96 JDA really beautiful, layered white with sliced lemons, limes, stones and hints of steel. Some lemon curd. Tight and solid with fine phenolics that give it structure and focus. Extremely poised and dignified. Drink now or hold.James Suckling | 95 JSThe previous vintage of this wine was made soley with Sauvignon Blanc, but as expected, the Ornellaia 2017 Ornellaia Bianco sees a small percentage of Viognier added to the blend. The exact percentage of the two components is 91% Sauvignon Blanc and 9% Viognier. If you are a fan of these grape varieties, as I am, this wine will appeal to all your basic pleasure points. Showing medium rich concentration and a creamy textural fiber, it reveals some of the weight that we associated with this hot and dry vintage. However, any trace of over-ripeness is mitigated by the cool soils that, in this case, consist of deep calcarious clay broken up by rocks at a breezy 80 to 100 meters above sea level. This consistency is perfect for locking in moisture even in drought vintages. The wine is fermented in oak, but no malolactic fermentation occurs, and the wine instead rests on the fine lees with frequent stirring. Orchard fruits and Cavaillon melon give the wine a sturdy center of gravity. Some 5,000 bottles were made, and this wine was released in April 2020.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RPThe 2017 Ornellaia Bianco is impressive, especially within the context of the warm, dry year. Bright and focused, the Bianco shows the natural richness of the vintage - that is impossible to escape - but it also retains quite a bit of energy. Orchard fruit, citrus and floral notes are beautifully delineated throughout. Once again, the Bianco is a wine of real distinction.Vinous Media | 94 VMSubtle peach, passion fruit, elderflower and earth flavors converge in this white. There is a touch of oak adding a vanilla accent. Though lush in texture, this is also intense and long, with an echo of passion fruit and salty elements. Drink now through 2024. 75 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

...The complexity and richness of Special Cuvée is unparalleled among the entry non-vintage blends of every Champagne house, short of ascending to the mesosphere of Krug. Its grand recipe explains why, built on incredible depth of 50%-60% reserves. Triumphant complexity is a given at Bollinger, but it’s the dynamic freshness and vitality that really set it apart as one of the most affordable Champagne benchmarks.Decanter | 96 DECBollinger’s NV Special Cuvée knocks it out of the park. Made from 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and the rest Pinot Meunier, with 30% of the blend brought up in barrels, it boasts a rich, deep, medium to full-bodied style as well as terrific notes of lemon curd, crème brûlée, caramelized stone fruits, and hints of toasty nuttiness that develop with time in the glass. It’s a big, rich Champagne that stays balanced and pure. Beautiful stuff.Jeb Dunnuck | 93 JDBollinger’s NV Special Cuvée knocks it out of the park. Made from 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and the rest Pinot Meunier, with 30% of the blend brought up in barrels, it boasts a rich, deep, medium to full-bodied style as well as terrific notes of lemon curd, crème brûlée, caramelized stone fruits, and hints of toasty nuttiness that develop with time in the glass. It’s a big, rich Champagne that stays balanced and pure. Beautiful stuff.Jeb Dunnuck | 93 JDRestrained and very pretty aromas include those of yeast, Meyer lemon, petrol and green apple where the latter element is picked up by the utterly delicious, vibrant and detailed flavors that possess fine complexity on the agreeably dry but not austere finish. The supporting mousse is dense but fine and overall, this is a wine that could be enjoyed now or held for up to a decade. Excellent. (Drink starting 2024)Burghound | 93 BHOne of Bollinger’s great assets is a massive stock of reserve wine, including 600,000 magnums held under cork. Gilles Descôtes tends those reserves, working with the blending team to subsume the variations of the current vintage into Bollinger’s Special Cuvée by using a majority of reserve wines in the blend. The result is a rich and harmonious Champagne with deep reserves of flavor. Its substantial, formal structure feels polished, its flavors balancing the cool earthiness of a limestone cave and the sunnier, bright floral notes of fresh cream. Built for food, whether emphasizing the freshness with lobster bisque, or the depth with beef Wellington and chanterelles.Terlato Wines Int’l., Lake Bluff, ILWine & Spirits | 93 W&S Like its rosé counterpart, the latest release of Bollinger’s NV Brut Special Cuvée is showing especially well, bursting from the glass with aromas of honeyed apples, crisp stone fruit, buttery pastry, ripe lemons and fresh walnuts. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy and vinous, with a deep core of beautifully ripe fruit, racy acids and a pillowy mousse, it’s a charming, characterful wine that proves that Special Cuvée is firmly back where it belongs.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92 RPThere’s a pleasing, snappy quality to the acidity framing this elegant Champagne, enlivening accessible flavors of currant, Marcona almond and orchard blossom, with a minerally touch of saline-laced oyster shell that lingers on the finish. Drink now through 2022. 11,000 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 92 WSLots of biscuit aromas and a wide spectrum of fresh-citrus, candied-citrus, red-apple and red-berry notes. Mouth-filling creaminess, plus quite an imposing presence and powerful structure for an NV Brut. Long, citrus and chalky finish that’s very clean and properly dry. 60% pinot noir, 30% chardonnay, 10% pinot meunier. Almost 20% barrel fermented and 62% reserve wines. Based on the 2017 vintage and disgorged July 2021. Drink now.James Suckling | 92 JSFine bubbles combine nicely with the cooked apples, pie crust and lemon rind. Some biscuit, too. Full body. Layered and creamy with a crisp finish. Always delicious. Drink now.James Suckling | 92 JSDominated, as always, by Pinot Noir and with wood fermentation and aging, this Champagne has a great poise between freshness and richness. It is intense and ripe, with apple and minerality coming together. The bottling is ready to drink.Wine Enthusiast | 92 WE (60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier; 8 g/l dosage; L1403801): Pale yellow. Toasty aromas of apple and pear nectar are complemented by hints of toffee, honey and orange zest. Full and expansive on the palate, offering ripe orchard and pit fruit flavors and an undercurrent of smoky minerals and buttered toast. Smooth and gently spicy on the clinging, nicely focusd finish.Antonio Galloni | 91 AG(NV Bollinger “Special Cuvée” Brut NV (Aÿ)) The current release of Bollinger “Special Cuvée” is composed of its customary blend of sixty percent pinot noir, twenty-five percent chardonnay and fifteen percent pinot meunier. It was finished with a dosage of eight grams per liter and offers up is classic pinot-shaded bouquet of white peach, apple, bread dough, a beautiful base of soil tones, a touch of hazelnut and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a fine core of fruit, a good spine of acidity, elegant mousse and a long, well-balanced and classy finish. This is still a young wine and I would tuck it away in the cellar for at least a few years and let its acids relax a bit and its secondary layers of complexity emerge. (Drink between 2020-2040).John Gilman | 91+ JGNotes of flowery beeswax, white fruit, and quince on the nose. The palate has a flinty austerity with Braeburn, white pepper and subtle spice followed by yeasty richness and brisk finish. Drinking Window 2020 - 2025.Decanter | 90 DEC

The floral bouquet is very fine and elegant but also quite delicate, suffused with touches of slightly candied citrus, but the telltale autolytic note of hazelnuts is less pronounced than usual. There is, however, some almond nuttiness on the palate, as well as racy rectitude and vivacity that give thrust to a long, surprisingly breezy finish. Will benefit from five to 10 years of cellaring. Disgorged January 2020. Dosage: 4.5g/L. Elaborated from 146 wines and 11 different vintages, the oldest of which dates back to 2000. 40% reserve wines. Drinking Window 2021 - 2035.Decanter | 94 DEC

The May 2017 disgorgement of Fallon’s NV Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Ozanne is showing brilliantly, wafting from the glass with aromas of citrus oil, crisp yellow orchard fruit, freshly baked bread, toasted nuts, candied peel and honeycomb. Full-bodied, vinous and concentrated, it’s layered and textural, with a bright spine of acidity, a pearly enlivening mousse and a long, intensely sapid finish. Its combination of power and tension makes this the finest wine I’ve tasted from Fallon to date. Of course, finding any of the thousand or so bottles released every year is next to impossible, but readers able to track one or two down are in for a treat.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RPThe NV Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru Ozanne is laced with gorgeous scents of pastry, brioche, citrus, white flowers and yellow orchard fruit. Warm, oxidative tones add breadth and volume, but the wine remains weightless, impeccable and pure. The delineated, crystalline finish leaves a lasting impression. This is a super-impressive showing from a producer who appears to have a very bright future. Ozanne is the old, historical name by which Avize was known prior to 796. Disgorged May 25, 2012.Antonio Galloni | 93 AG