Essi Avellan: Lemon color. Overt, evolving, toasty nose, with charred and yeasty tones. Stewed appley fruit with confected notes, pineapple and vanilla. Very sweet fruitiness on the long, intense, and fresh palate. 89

Simon Field: Lively luminosity, the beads then repay the compliment. As does the nose, which majors on dried fruit, verbena, quinine, and gorse, Viennese pastries set out invitingly somewhere in the background, maybe a ginger slice or two as well. The palate is structurally ambitious, underscored by rococo architecture, with plenty of ornamentation to admire. The ensemble is felicitous, however, with hints of umami, Victoria plums, dried apricot, and slate behind the riper display of red-berried fruit, all integrated pleasingly. 92

Anthony Rose: Mid-gold; there’s plenty of invitingly fresh, malty, and toasty autolytic character in the aroma—Chardonnay not a fish out of water in the Côte des Bar here. There’s a really buoyant mousse, too, keeping the bubbles so alive that they’re practically prancing their way across the tongue in a lively dance of creamy richness with buttered popcorn notes, tapering to a zesty dry finish. 93