**If interested, I’ve posted more pics of this visit and trip on my Instagram account - check me out @sips_ensemble**
We also had the pleasure to visit Champagne Paul Bara, another family-owned and -managed winery with only 8 employees! 💪 💪
It is a small but high-quality operation, producing approximately 100,000 bottles per year made exclusively from the free run juice. ✨✨✨ Thanks to the likes of @kermitlynchwine , the U.S. is a major exporting market for this wine. 🙌🙌
Paul Bara’s wines are sustainably farmed on numerous vineyard plots located throughout Bouzy, a Grand Cru village within the Montagne de Reims region of Champagne. 🏔 🏔
Bouzy is known especially for its Pinot Noir-driven Champagnes and also for its still red wines, a specialty of the region, called Coteaux Champenois. 🍇🍇
Paul Bara uses mostly stainless steel vessels for its vinification, designed to accentuate the purity of the fruit. They also use subterranean concrete vessels for the Pinot Noir used in rosé blends and for the Coteaux Champenois (still reds). 🥂
On our tour it was fascinating to see bottles being disgorged, dosaged, corked, capped, and caged on a machine in seconds — these are some of the last stages of the Méthode Champenoise. 🤓
We also learned that Paul Bara is a member of the ‘Club Trésors de Champagne’ an association of 28 vignerons formed to promote quality wine growing and winemaking practices and to highlight the beauty of terroir, demonstrating the excellence achievable outside of the major houses whose names are globally renown such as Veuve Cliquot and Moët & Chandon. 👏
Our favorite wine of the tasting was the 2010 Brut Comtesse Marie de France 🇫🇷 made exclusively from Pinot Noir grapes 🍇 It had a richness and abundance of orchard fruit, including baked yellow apple, also toast, bread dough, yeast, and dried white blossom notes, still offering finesse and precision, retaining incredible vibrancy.
We are grateful for our visit to Paul Bara and we look forward to visiting again the future! 🙏❤️ — 3 years ago
Dry, savory and vibrant. — 4 years ago
New Years part 1: a bit more muscular than typical Fleurie — 6 years ago
One of the best champagnes I have tasted. — 7 years ago
On 13/11/15 da colombo — 9 years ago
Bought this to be the "wine before the wine" bottle and while light and crispy (as you would expect) , it really holds its own as far as strength on the flavor profile. Highly recommendable Sancerre #sancerre #wine #whitewine #domaine #france — 9 years ago
Delicious Pinot Noir
Small Case Size — 10 years ago
Yes and yes. — 7 months ago
I haven’t had this wine since the late 2000’s.
As good as I remember it.
#Nostalgia — a year ago
Light, floral, beautiful wine — 3 years ago
Fruit throughout with notes of cinnamon — 4 years ago
The darker side of Rivers Marie. Where all of the Occidental bottlings share red fruited characteristics this is more black fruits and fresh earth. The supporting acidity and the hours it still takes to open up give me hope that it should continue to develop in bottle. — 5 years ago
Very light/refined, not a power chard. Slightest bit acidic — 7 years ago
Like a California smile on an eq - lots of acid on one end balanced by tree fruits on the other. — 8 years ago
This is what Beaujolais Nouveau should taste like. — 8 years ago
One of my favorite Beaujolais ever! Purchased at Lou's 2014 — 9 years ago
Look for the RM — 10 years ago
Fabulous and smooth — 2 years ago
Que du bonheur avec la nature!!! — 8 years ago
Big black cherry jam . Brilliant for a young wine ! A certain silkiness. Distinct — 8 years ago
The splashy label gave me pause and I approached with caution, but once I tasted, I was hooked. Fruity and warm without being a fruit bomb. Strong finish with stewed fruit and a hint of star anise. I would enjoy this all night solo hit it begs for food. — 9 years ago
Boris Mathiszik
After finding Australian cabs so and so, I am pivoting back to Shiraz. That’s where AUS shines, and this wine is a great example. Deep and intense flavors, structure and a long finish. Delicious. — 6 months ago