What's Pressoir Drinking?

August 25, 2022

Raj Vaidya

A couple of weeks ago, 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!

Last week I recounted the stellar 1964 Bize Savigny 1er Cru that held the distinction of being the oldest bottle. This week I wanted to reflect on the youngest bottle of the night (I know, this sounds crazy, but it was the youngest…), the 1979 Volnay Caillerets from the Marquis d’Angerville.

The storied history of this estate back to the early 1800’s, though it was in 1906 that Marquis Jacques d’Angerville bought the manor house that sits within the Clos des Ducs, their top holding. His son (Jacques also) took over the domaine in the early 50’s and brought the estate’s reputation to great heights.

The Caillerets vineyard always stands out in blind tastings, with a great deal of mineral stoniness on the palate. This is true of all producers in the mid slope climat on the south side of the appellation, but it stood out even more in this wine which had been (at least as effectively as possible for that era) completely destemmed. While the Bize I spoke about last week showed a surprising amount of fruit for a wine that was likely all whole cluster, this bottle surprised me with the savory and spicy elements, flavors I tend to associate more with wines that have whole cluster.

Guillaume d’Angerville, Jacques’ son, explained this character in older bottlings to me once before. He suggested that even though the bunches were destemmed, there were no vibrating tables in those days, let alone destemmers with the accuracy and efficiency we know today. So while his dad definitely destemmed the bunches, there was probably some small amount of vegetal matter that found its way into the vat, perhaps accounting for that pleasant herbaceous note…

Another tremendous bottle! Next week I’ll share one last tasting note from this magical evening, a Côte-Rôtie that over delivered.