Champagne Brut Reserve Grand Cru Paul Bara Review And Tasting Notes
Paul Bara’s Champagne brut reserve grand cru, said frankly, is a fabulous Pinot Noir, an exquisite wine for depth, typicality, minerality, and pulp.
The symphony is played on the alternation of ripe flavors with a nervous and chiseled fruit in alcohol but refreshed by a shower of citrus fruits.
The stroke is elegant, complex, and evolved, but salt and freshness are always skyrocketing and do not give up for a moment, giving a phenomenal rhythm to the drink.
The Paul Bara winery is one of the most renowned and appreciated, a pillar of the village of Bouzy. All the vineyards are Grand Cru and planted close to Reims Mountain. The cellar is a masterpiece, dug out of the gypsum as it once was, with depths reaching 10 meters deep.
Today, the winery is led by Chantal Bara, a seventh-generation scion of a family that has made tradition a trademark.
And this Champagne is a shining example of how Champagne is both sumptuous and rich, yet razor-sharp.
It is basically a Pinot Noir, there is 20% of Chardonnay to add a creamy and round touch, but the soul is that of purebred Pinot Noir, a thoroughbred. If you are looking for a textbook Champagne, this wine is representative and characteristic: the price is ok, and it has a lot of juiciness.
The bouquet
Complex nose and all played on a play of light and shadow between minerality and fruit, salt, oysters, and algae are mixed with berries, candied oranges, cream, sugared almonds, and then the yeasts in the background. It is never banal, never still, constantly changing and measured, with this scent of rock and chalk to furrow the nose—incredible persistence and finesse.
The flavor
It is a perfect synthesis of acidity, salt, and pulp in the mouth. The structure is large and very airy. The balance is already good, dictated by the excellent work of the yeasts, but the soul is sharp, with the restless flavors of Pinot Noir that emerge strongly. The fruit’s pulp is fantastic, glacial, but then here is that touch of Chardonnay that interrupts the dark dominance of Pinot Noir with rivulets of honey.
Overall it is an ambitious wine but always impeccable, lively, and very expressive, resulting from a respectful and not too interventionist processing.
Superb finish with returns of candied orange and salt.
Price
46-50 euros, it is not given as a gift, but we are talking about a large bottle, one of the most representative and successful wines of all Bouzy. A Grand Cru, not pizza and figs.
Food Pairings
It is a tough wine that is not afraid, do not pair it only with fish or seafood but also with white meats. Parmigiana ravioli, spaghetti with clams, chicken tikka masala, Chicken Cacciatore, Vitello Tonnato, truffle risotto, pasta alla carbonara.
