What's Pressoir Drinking
October 21, 2020
By Daniel Johnnes
In regards to the wines I choose to drink, some people would call me cheap. Some would call me reasonable. Others would call me a genius. Frankly, I don’t care. I know I’m not cheap and I know I’m not a genius.
Maybe I’m reasonable. One thing is for sure: I drink for pleasure. Normally, I’ll open a delicious Beaujolais, Coteaux du Lyonnais, village level Burgundy from a great producer or maybe a Barbera, Dolcetto or Nebbiolo from Piedmont. Or a Loire valley Anjou. Or maybe a German Riesling.
These are all wonderful wines, great values and easy to open and enjoy at home for a casual occasion. Though sometimes I just get thirsty for a real treat. A Grand Cru or a top level Premier Cru from Burgundy. Maybe a Bordeaux from a mature vintage or a great northern Rhone from Chave, Clape, Clusel-Roch.
The other night, was a “thirsty for a great wine” night so I opened a Burlotto Barolo Monvigliero 2011. What a treat. It is amazing how clear the difference is between a wine that has a noble voice speaking of place, grape variety and character and a wine that is a simple delicious wine. As I said earlier, the simple delicious wine is my “vin du jour” but I get so much joy when a wine causes me to reflect, savor and even on rare occasion brings a tear to my eye. These great wines are works of art with profound nuance, subtlety and length. The Burlotto did not bring a tear BUT, it was clearly a refined and special example of a great terroir in Piedmont. This area is Verduno in the north of Piedmont on a sandy soil that yields more subtle delicate examples of Barolo. This one from the 2011 vintage was fully open with the telltale aromas of dried roses, leather, and spice. It had a wonderful texture, almost velvet and perfect balance of ripe sweet fruit layered with black currant and raspberry accompanied by a luxurious long fresh finish.
I could not believe how quickly the bottle shared with two other people disappeared. Of course, the next bottle had to be at the same level of enjoyment or better. I’ll talk about that one another day.
