Paul Bara Marie de France Blanc de Noirs 2010

After a good 10 years of yeast storage, this Pinot Noir Champagne from old vines shows itself balanced, smooth, long and with intense mineral freshness but it is aromatically still somewhat neutral. Give it a few more years in the cellar for nutty, smoky complexity and a fuller palate.

Bouzy produces full-bodied champagnes that have a firm mineral structure and refined freshness in the best sites. Marie de France by Bara is one of the best Blanc de Noirs, known for its ability to develop over decades. Over the years it develops intriguing aromas of grilled hazelnuts and smoky notes of gunpowder.

Paul Baras 1959s won the Blanc de Noirs category of the most high-profile Champagne tasting ever, the Millennium Tasting in 1999, and I was able to taste the perfect 1982 in April 2019. The Baras have been making wine at Bouzy since 1833, but it was Paul, who ran the estate for over 60 years until his death in 2015, who made it the flagship of Bouzy. Today, under the direction of Chef de Cave Christian Forget, the Bara house is "still the most quality-obsessed grower in Bouzy. Only the first pressing is used, the wines are aged for at least four years in the cold cellar, and the yield is maintained at the lowest possible level" as Richard Juhlin writes on champagneclub.com.

Marie de France is made from old Pinot Noir vines from the best of the 30 or so plots. Together with Ambonnay and Ay, Bouzy is one of the most famous Pinot Noir sites in Champagne, where particularly full, concentrated wines are produced on steep south-facing slopes, while the terroir of fine-pored, very old chalk also ensures mineral tension and freshness. Rarely, however, do Bouzy champagnes achieve the finesse and complexity that Paul Bara has already achieved with the Special Club. The Marie de France offers an even richer palette of aromas. Paul Bara named his best Pinot Noir Champagne Comtesse Marie de France after the daughter of Elinor of Aquitaine at the end of the 1960s. He registered the trademark rights separately, so that Marie de France is labelled as MA, but is produced from Bara grapes by Bara.