What's Pressoir Drinking? Summer Team BBQ
Every summer, Daniel is kind enough to open his home to our team for a little break in the season. In addition to the consistently excellent meal he prepares with Sally, his wife, Daniel also generously opens his cellar. This year again, the wines were superb and as you would imagine, Burgundy oriented, with a couple significant performers from the Loire and Germany.
The festivities started with the most glorious thirst quencher one can dream of on a hot humid day in Brooklyn. Notoriously cherished by Raj, the opening act was from producer Willi Schaefer, in the Mosel. We drank a Graacher Domprobst - the vineyard is planted on a southern exposed slope of slate that the Romans started identifying early on as a precious site. This is still one of the best vineyards in the region. The problem with this low alcohol, mouthwatering Riesling is always how quickly they get drunk as they are so easy and irresistibly delicious. So we moved on to another favorite of ours, Chablis. With no time to waste, we went straight to arguably the best producer in the region, Vincent Dauvissat, of course. The bottle was a 1996 Vaillons in pristine condition. Obviously drier than the German, I found it interesting to compare the minerality between the two wines, especially that smoky, flinty characteristic they share. After a few minutes, I had this revelation that the nose reminded me of one of my favorite desserts, the lemon custard and meringue tart, known in my country as tarte au citron meringuée.
We sat at the table, set up with juicy lamb chops and various grain salads, and opened a magnum of Domaine de l’Arlot Nuits-St-Georges Clos de l’Arlot 2002. Jean-Pierre de Smet, a dear friend of Daniel and more recently each one of us in the team, made that gorgeous wine. After fine tuning his winemaking skills at Domaine Dujac, Jean-Pierre started as the winemaker at Domaine de l’Arlot in 1986 and quickly built the great reputation of this Burgundy estate. Clos de l’Arlot is a vineyard solely owned by the domaine and typically planted with the oldest vines of the property. The jaw-dropping 2002 vintage and the magnum size effect made for a memorable wine moment. We all have had this experience of opening a bottle and after tasting it think, well, it is a bit shy, or muted. This Nuits-St-Georges offered the opposite experience, a cornucopia of complex fruits, both ripe and juicy, with a pitch perfect underlying minerality and more subtle black tea. It was superb, dense and deep.
As you probably know, our team likes to go back to white Burgundy when the cheese hits the table. Victoire, the newest member of our crew, kindly brought a fresh and clean bottle of Meursault Bouches Chères 2011 that her family makes. I was quite impressed with how youthful the wine showed, despite its age. You will note the spelling of the famous Premier Cru Bouchères, poetically refashioned by the producer here.
We finally closed the show with a near meditative and spiritual bottle of Clos de la Coulée de Serrant from 1980. This cult wine is a real gem for a reason. Certified organic and biodynamic since 1981, it was first planted in 1130 by Cistercian monks and has remained a vineyard since! Unapologetically rich, heady with alcohol levels soaring up to 15% plus in some years, the magic of this unique wine is its authenticity as Daniel rightfully pointed out. If you ever wondered what sommeliers mean by modern or traditional style, this is a textbook example of what old school means. No polish, no make up to impress, just the pure and raw personality of Chenin Blanc grown on the schist and quartz slope, bathed in the sun. 1980, Raj’s “vintage” did particularly well for Coulée de Serrant. The wine kept changing on the nose, oscillating between smoky, wet stone minerality and explosive exotic fruits, peach, pineapple and even mango.
We closed out with Daniel’s famous sour cherry pie, a delicious way to end the evening on a sweet note.
This was quite a night to remember, a great opportunity to literally refuel while we are getting ready for a very busy fall program!
The bottle of Rousseau was sadly corked…