Paul Bara Grand Rosé de Bouzy / NV / 1.5L

Description:

The Paul Bara Grand Rosé de Bouzy Grand Cru NV is a Pinot Noir–led rosé Champagne from Bouzy, at the eastern end of the Montagne de Reims, made in magnum. Colour comes from a portion of still Bouzy red wine blended in, and the wine carries the fruit weight you would expect from that, without losing its Champagne cut.

Wild strawberry, raspberry and a darker note of black cherry lead the aromatics, with a faint baking-spice edge that builds with air in the glass. The palate keeps that red-fruited core and adds pastry and blood orange as it warms.

The attack is brisk and clean, then the texture broadens through the middle, chalky rather than creamy, with a fine steady bead holding everything together. Chardonnay in the blend lifts the finish, which closes dry, faintly bitter in the way good Pinot rosé should, and long on cherry skin.

A magnum of Grand Rosé de Bouzy is a table wine as much as an aperitif, so give it something to work with: jamón, roast quail, duck rillettes, salmon off the barbecue, or a whole roast chicken carved at the table for a dozen people. Strawberries and cream at the other end of the meal is no hardship either.

Drinking beautifully now and, thanks to the slower ageing of the larger format, worth cellaring five to eight years if you would rather hold it for something worth opening a magnum for.