Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

NV Brut Réserve Grand Cru

Paul Bara
Discount Eligible $64.00
SOLD OUT

The village of Bouzy and Champagne Paul Bara are practically synonymous: this historic house boasts over 170 years of history, throughout which generation after generation of Bara has crafted celebrated Champagnes from the village's south-facing slopes. Bouzy's vineyards enjoy Grand Cru status thanks to an exposure that favors excellent ripeness and chalky soils that provide stimulating freshness, in addition to housing the deep, cool cellars essential to aging Champagne. Pinot Noir reigns, and the Bara house style is honest to its exceptional terroir. The Brut Réserve features the rich, ripe fruit we come to expect from Bouzy–seductive, mouth-filling, dry and focused; a class act all around.

Anthony Lynch


Technical Information
Wine Type: sparkling
Vintage: NV
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: 80% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay
Appellation: Bouzy
Country: France
Region: Champagne
Producer: Paul Bara
Winemaker: The Bara Family and Christian Forget
Vineyard: 35 years average, 11 ha total
Soil: Clay, Limestone
Aging: Ages in bottle for 3 years before release
Farming: Lutte Raisonnée
Alcohol: 12.5%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Champagne

map of Champagne

True Champagne must not only sparkle, but also must come from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France and be made using méthode champenoise—a process that involves prolonged aging of the wine as well as a bottle fermentation used to add the sparkle to the finished product. Though wine has been made in this region since at least the 5th century, Champagne as we now know is a relatively new creation. It wasn’t until the 19th century that sparkling wine production took hold on a large scale in much part due to improvements in the strength of glass for bottles and the embrace of French nobility of the sparkling wines of the region.

Only three grape varieties may be used to make Champagne: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. The chalk-heavy soils not only provide complexity and texture to the finished wine, but also act as a natural humidifier thus keeping the vine’s roots warm during colder months of the year. There are grand cru and premier cru designated vineyard areas but unlike Burgundy, there are few lieu-dit vineyards (though in recent years there has been a greater interest in producing vineyard specific Champagnes).

Kermit’s first foray into the region came in 1981 when he began importing the wines of J. Lassalle and Paul Bara—two producers whose wines we still import. In the mid 2000s, Kermit began importing the wines of Veuve Fourny et Fils.

Of Champagne, Kermit says, “You might be surprised to learn that I don’t like a goût de terroir to dominate the taste of Champagnes. If it dominates, you lose finesse. I want some, obviously—but only enough to keep things interesting.”

More from Champagne or France

Discount Eligible $84.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $88.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $84.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $49.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $75.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $314.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $117.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $410.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $298.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $188.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $120.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $245.00
AT CART MAX
Old wine bottles

Let the brett nerds retire into protective bubbles, and whenever they thirst for wine it can be passed in to them through a sterile filter. Those of us on the outside can continue to enjoy complex, natural, living wines.

Inspiring Thirst, page 236