What's Pressoir Drinking?

August 17, 2022

Raj Vaidya

I had a few former colleagues over for a night of eating and drinking, and several of them were kind enough to dig very deep in their cellars to share several special bottles. What can I say, I’m a lucky guy!

The oldest bottle of the night was from one of my favorite Burgundian domaines and was the oldest bottling I’ve ever tasted from said domaine, the Bize Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru “Vergellesses.”

Domaine Simon Bize dates back to the phylloxera era, founded in 1890, and has been, over the last 70 odd years, one of the premier estates in Savigny. The domaine rose to great prominence beginning in the 80’s with Patrick Bize at the helm. Known for a heavy hand with whole bunch fermentation, these wines are always ethereal, not deep in color or weight but immensely deep in complexity and spice aromas. Today, Patrick’s widow Chisa makes tremendous wines of quality, and the next generation of Bizes are beginning to get involved at the domaine.

This bottle predated Patrick’s era, which began in 1972, and so little is written about the winemaking or viticulture at the time. I did note a strong sense of whole cluster fermentation aromas but the wine had more fruit than the bottles I’ve tasted from Patrick’s early days, so perhaps the percentage of stems was less in those days. Beguiling aromas of lavender and jasmine flowers dominated the nose, on the palate a distinct red cherry fruit. The fruit was intense, I could hardly believe that such an old wine could have that level of finesse and intensity at the same time. A tremendous bottle!

It was a great wine night and there are a few other bottles I want to share my experience with, so look out for a couple more tasting notes on these in the coming weeks…