THE HISTORY OF A CHAMPAGNE FAMILY

Overview            

Seven members (in bold, below) from six generations of the Champagne Bollinger family have served as president of the firm since its founding in 1829.  Their goal has been to offer enthusiasts a unique wine whose style is intimately linked to the history of a family that has chosen to remain profoundly rooted in the singular interpretation of its vineyards and region.  In this era of conglomerization, Champagne Bollinger has been faithful to its traditions by remaining one of the last independent, family-owned and managed houses in Champagne.

Future                

"Bollinger today is quite simply a blend of the past and the future," Serena Sutcliffe states in the Cyril Ray book, Bollinger: Tradition of a Champagne Family (Heinemann, London, 1994).  "Where the past embodies traditions proved by generations to have been good, it remains as the backbone of the firm and the wine.  Where the future demands new exigencies in quality control and consistency, Bollinger rises to the challenge and arrives there before its competitors.  Today at Bollinger is constant awareness of fulfilling a historic role in Champagne married to forward-looking vision and energy."

1650                                       

The Hennequin de Villermont family settles in Champagne, at the Castle of Cuis, whose remnants are still visible.

1750                                       

Pierre Gilles Nicholas Hennequin, Lord of Villermont, Cuis, Cramant, Chouilly, La Tour, Cuisle, St. Martin aux Champs, and Champoulain (17 ? –1795), moves to 16 Rue Jules Lobet in Ay, where Champagne Bollinger is located to this day.  There is no proof that he owned the villages listed in his title; indeed, he was not a man of wealth, though he did own vineyards in Ay, Cuis and Cramant.

1763                                       

Athanase Louis Emmanuel Hennequin, Lord of Villermont,  (1763-1840) is born to Gilles.    As a lad, he joins the French Navy as an ensign and fights with the Americans during their War of Independence, including in Chesapeake Bay on September 5, 1781.  By 1791, an officer, he is back in Europe and fights at the battle of Maestricht.  During the French Revolution, de Villermont exiles himself to Russia, from 1794 to 1798, where he is a commander in the Imperial Russian Navy.  With the subsequent brief restoration of the Bourbon family under Louis XVIII, de Villermont returns to France where he is eventually promoted to rear admiral and governor of the Royal Naval College of Angouleme.  Unfortunately, many of his lands are not restituted after the Revolution.

1815                   

When the Russians invade Champagne in July 1815, they spare the village of Ay because of de Villermont’s service in the Russian Navy.    His share of the family estate survives the Revolution but income is low so, existing Bollinger invoices show, he begins shipping small quantities of the 1812 vintage of his still and sparkling wines, primarily Cremant, to customers in France and the English Channel Islands, though not under his own name, as it was unseemly for aristocrats then to be in commerce. 

1829                                       

Jacques Joseph Placide Bollinger (1803-1888) was born to a noblewoman and legal officer in Ellwangen in the Kingdom of Wurtemberg.  In 1822, at 19, he joined Muller-Ruinart (no longer in existence) to sell their Champagne in the Kingdoms of Bavaria, Hanover, Wurtemberg and the Netherlands.  In 1829, with his Muller-Ruinart colleague Paul Renaudin and de Villermont, he forms the Renaudin Bollinger company on February 6.  Paul Renaudin dies without heirs, but tradition at Bollinger is so strong that his name remains on the label until 1960.        

1837                   

At 34, Jacques, who becomes a French citizen in 1846, marries de Villermont's twenty-year old daughter from his second marriage, Charlotte, and they have one daughter, Marie, who eventually marries Jules Moret de Rocheprise, and two sons, Joseph and Georges.

1870                   

Jacques exports his first shipment to the U.S.

1884                   

Georges is awarded the Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria and a year later from the Prince of Wales

1888             

Georges and Joseph Bollinger take over the business on Jacques death, and acquire vineyards in the villages of Louvois, Bouzy, and Verzenay as they expand exports.

1901                   

Georges is awarded the Royal Warrant from King Edward VII and, again, in 1910,  from King George V and Queen Mary.

1911                   

Because Bollinger had always used grapes grown exclusively in Champagne, the house is spared during the Ay Riots when many Champagne houses are put to the torch for importing grapes from outside the region.  Georges is elected to the Ay city council, where he continues to serve during the German invasion of 1914.

1918                                       

Georges dies and his son Jacques (1893-1941), at age 25, takes over, following a career as a glamorous and distinguished Farman pilot in the French Air Force during World War I, for which he receives the Legion d'Honneur and Croix de Guerre by the age of 24.

1936                                       

Jacques replants the two-acre Cote aux Enfants vineyard in Ay and purchases vineyards in Tauxieres as well as the Duminy house and cellars on Boulevard Marechal de Lattre de Tassigny (which today are Bollinger’s offices) and connects them, via underground cellars, to his own cellars around the corner on Rue Jules Lobet.

1940                   

A month after the Germans requisition the Bollinger home and force the family out (during which time they take 178,000 bottles of Champagne), they demand that the Bollingers return to work.  To protect their vineyards, winery, and remaining inventory, the family returns to work in the vineyards and winery.  When told they are ‘goldbricking’, Jacques says they require help and thus is able to free many of the family’s workers from prison camp.

1941                                       

When Jacques Bollinger dies during the Nazi occupation of Champagne, Elizabeth ‘Lily’ Law de Lauriston Boubers (1899-1977, married to Jacques in November 1923), takes over.  As they have no children, she is already deeply immersed in the business and so is able to run it, even during the difficult World War II years.  During her 30 years as head of Bollinger, she acquires additional vineyards in Ay, Mutigny, Grauves (1955 and 1968) and Bisseuil (1961). 

1944                   

On August 10 Bollinger's properties are heavily damaged when a third of Ay is destroyed by Allied bombardments to destroy German munitions, but on August 22, General Patton's U.S. Third Army arrives just in time to stop the retreating German army from dynamiting Bollinger's cellars and Ay.

1950                                       

Lily is awarded the Royal Warrant from George VI and the Queen Mother.

1951                                       

Lily purchases from the Deuil family the one-and-a-half-hectare grand cru Cote aux Enfants plot between Rues de la Breche and Allard in the village of Ay, the vineyard from which Thomas Jefferson’s favorite wine of Champagne originated.

1955                                       

Lily is awarded the Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II.

1964                                       

Lily purchases Bollinger’s U.K. importer (since 1851), Mentzendorff, to assure the correct distribution of Bollinger’s Champagnes in its most important market.

1971                                       

Claude d’Hautefeuille (1913-2000), son-in-law of Lily’s sister Therese de Valbray, who joins Bollinger in 1950, becomes president, following 18 years in the French Foreign Legion.  A year later Lily retires, though she remains active until her death in 1977.  D'Hautefeuille, president of the Syndicat des Grandes Marques de Champagne from 1968 to 1974, purchases vineyards in Champvoisy and maintains Bollinger's policy of quality and independence while modernizing the company and increasing exports.  He retires from the presidency in 1978, becoming chairman emeritus of the board until 1998.   Heinemann publishes Bollinger: Tradition of a Champagne Family, written as tribute to the house by Cyril Ray.

1975                   

Bollinger introduces its unique pre-phylloxera ungrafted vineyard with the 1969 vintage, naming it Vieilles Vignes Françaises.

1978                   

Christian Bizot (1928-2002), son of Lily’s youngest sister, Guillemette, and Parisian banker Henry Bizot, who joins Bollinger in 1952, becomes president and increases exports to 83% of production while maintaining Bollinger's traditional values.  He purchases vineyards in Mutigny, and discontinues the house’s Extra Dry, saying its dosage masks the excellence of the wine. In 1989, for his commitment to quality, he is named one of only two Honorary Masters of Wine.  In March 1992, when criticism of Champagne for its declining quality has reached a roar in England and France, Bizot publishes a Charter of Ethics and Quality that makes public its guidelines for producing world-class Champagne; the family also begins listing basic information regarding cru quality, grapes and aging on each of its Champagnes’ back labels.

1981                   

For the first time, Bollinger bottles its Ay Cote aux Enfants vineyard pinot noir, with the 1979 vintage.

1987                   

To honor Lily on the 10th anniversary of her death, Bollinger establishes the Madame Bollinger Foundation to promote the highest ethical and quality standards in the wine industry.  With its first grant of 30,000 pounds to the Institute of Masters of Wine in 1988, the foundation extends the Masters of Wine exam to overseas candidates.  Additional grants are made in subsequent years, and the Foundation also awards a Madame Bollinger Medal of Excellence in Wine Tasting to the best taster in the Master of Wine Exam.

Given the accelerating trend of conglomerization in Champagne, to protect itself from a hostile takeover, Bollinger restructures to a family-owed holding company, Jacques Bollinger Cie., with all shares entirely in family hands.

1993                   

Bollinger creates the R.D. Circle to ensure that enthusiasts and collectors receive their R.D. in perfect condition, fresh and directly from the winery rather than after months and even years of storage under uncertain conditions.

1993                   

Ghislain de Montgolfier (1943-), great-grandson of founder Jacques Joseph Bollinger, and nephew of Jacques and Lily, becomes Bollinger’s seventh president in December after serving on the company’s board of directors from 1985, and joining Bollinger as director general in 1990 following a career in agricultural research in the public and private sectors.  He purchases vineyards in Louvois and Vertus.  In 1993, he becomes president of the Technical Commission of the CIVC (Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne). 

Heinemann republishes Cyril Ray's Bollinger: Tradition of a Champagne Family, updated and with a new chapter by Serena Sutcliffe, U.K. M.W.

2000                   

Bollinger holds a meeting with the young generation (under 35) of Union of Growers, during which many say they have a vision of how they want their Champagnes to taste, but Bolly already produces such Champagnes.

2001                                       

Bollinger opens its first Bollinger Bar, in the Le Meridien in Grosvenor House on Park Lane in London in March.