Champagne E. Barnaut, Champagne Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru NV

93 points Vinous
"The NV Brut Blanc de Noirs Grand Cru Quintessence du Pinot Noir is a beautiful, resonant wine with tons of Bouzy textural richness. Small red berry, dried herbs, crushed flowers and spice fill out the wine's frame effortlessly. Readers who enjoy Blanc de Noirs will find much to admire here. This is a terrific showing."

93 points Burghound
"A markedly yeasty nose features notes of ripe pear and apple notes along with plenty of baked bread character. The very rich and relatively full-bodied, delicious, well-detailed and solidly complex flavors possess excellent detail on the clean and dry finish. The mousse is generous and while the palate impression is not especially refined, it’s the excellent complexity that makes this so compelling."

92 points John Gilman, View from the Cellar
"The new release of Philippe Secondé’s Quintessence du Pinot Noir is outstanding. The wine was disgorged in September of 2019 and finished with a dosage of six grams per liter. The bouquet jumps from the glass in a refined blend of apple, peach, warm bread, a fine soil signature, gentle smokiness and a topnote of dried flowers. On the palate the wine is crisp, full-bodied and still quite youthful, with a fine core of fruit, lovely focus and grip, a serious girdle of acidity, elegant mousse and a long, very, very promising finish. This is certainly drinkable today, but a few years in the cellar are really going to allow it to start hitting on all cylinders!"

Jancis Robinson
"From Bouzy.
Lots of development on the nose – very flattering. Quite rich but beautifully balanced. Lemon mousse sensation. Very easy to drink. 17.5/20 points."

Vinous Reverie Notes
Edmond Barnaut was one of the first pioneers in Champagne to create his own brand outside of the controlling centers of power of Epernay and Reims. In 1874 he set up shop in Bouzy, where he owned vines and where he married Appoline Godme-Barancourt, heiress to additional vineyards in the village. Philippe Seconde is the current descendant and arguably one of the more important ones. He took over in 1985 and soon made a name for himself with this vinous Blanc de Noirs. Philippe first made this wine in 1995 and quickly gained a reputation for burnishing the finesse in what is, given the grape and the terroir, an innately large - scale wine.