Gilbert Van Hassel

9.1

Strikingly acid which is to be expected for a 2021 — 3 months ago

Irina Georgieva

9.8

Really good Sauvignon Blanc, typical for Sancerre. Very elegant, good balance, long aftertaste. I really enjoyed it! — 5 months ago

Adam Baker

9.5

Drank with Christmas dinner 2024, with honey baked ham, and brown sugar sweet potatoes. Russian River Valley Pinot goes really well with ham. This one was really good. With and without food. Fruit forward but doesn’t overwhelm the wine. Buy more. — 6 months ago

with Chris, Brud and 1 other

Pooneet K

9.1

Nice Beaujolais. Great ripe fruit balanced with some earth. Only thing keeping this from being higher is a slight bit of heat on the finish, perhaps due to the 14.5%. — 9 months ago

Pourist

9.8

Light, floral, beautiful wine — 5 years ago

Aaron Rankin

9.2

Lemon kissed butterscotch. Rich butterscotch on the round palette. A drinker’s cali chard. — 5 years ago

Peter Keohan

9.3

Beautiful bottle great acidity giving it backbone balanced with a long finish — 5 years ago

romo

9.3

Fifteen-year old Chenin showing some weight and tropicals. Furry note on finish. Has some years left, still. — 3 months ago

Jeremy Shanker

Sommelier at RN74

9.5

Incredible. Still a baby. — 5 months ago

Mark Farrell

9.3

Deep ruby color with nose of cassis, blackberries, violets, cedar, and vanilla. Very acidic and tart on first sip, but as it opens up the depth comes. This is a big wine with solid fruit and firm tannins. Give it a few years and I imagine those tannins will soften a bit. Enjoyed with some friends while we prayed for our kids. — 6 months ago

Bob Boyle

9.3

On the pour dusty chocolate nose, becoming more prevalent on the swirl, body full with red & black fruit accompanied by soft tannins that framed the fruit nicely with medium long finish. No need for lime with this Corona. — 7 months ago

Vanessa

9.4

**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! 🙏❤️ — 4 years ago

with Deked1

David Lee

9.0

Dry, savory and vibrant. — 5 years ago

Brendan Powell

9.5

Outstanding. - at LSL restaurant — 4 months ago

Vanessa

9.3

Marie-Courtin was established in 2005 by Dominique Moreau, who named her winery after her grandmother – a “woman of the earth” – surely an inspiration behind Dominique’s unwavering commitment to organic & biodynamic viticulture. She’s among the few (but growing # of) producers pursuing organic / biodynamic practices in Champagne, a notoriously challenging climate for mildew & rot.

Champagne Marie-Courtin is a Grower producer located in the village of Polisot in the Barséquannais, specializing in compelling terroir expressions, using a low intervention approach in the winery, with wild ferments and minimal (if any) dosage…

This wine fermented and aged in used (neutral) French barriques, allowing delicate oxygen influences w/out the oaky flavors. It spent 36 months aging sur lie (on the lees).

The result is a precise and chiseled wine with toasty notes next to layers of blossom, lemon peel, bright raspberry, strawberry, peach skin, kumquat, ripe pear, oyster shell, saline, blanched almond, bread dough, pastry, and baked red apple.

This wine represents a singular expression of a particular year, vineyard, and variety – it offers a sensory glimpse into a specific place and time. A magical & lovely wine. Cheers! — 4 months ago

with Deked1

Tristan

10

That’s good! — 6 months ago

Charles Garrison

9.2

Lush, succulent Pinot…dark ruby on pour, dark fruits rise out of the glass setting the stage for an enjoyable first sip…no noticeable tannins…lingering finish…this vintage is in a really good place today — 4 years ago

Sam T

9.3

Delicious. Perfect wine for a Happy Thanksgiving! — 5 years ago

Nicole Schilling

9.4

Fruit throughout with notes of cinnamon — 5 years ago

Evan Griffith

9.1

A bit more on the cherry cola rather than just cherry end of the spectrum than I prefer, but nonetheless nice — 6 years ago