What's Pressoir Watching?

Victoire Chabert

August 18, 2022

To continue in the series What's Pressoir is watching, I wanted to present a documentary this time. 

Three Days of Glory is a must-watch for you Club Members but also Burgundy wine lovers and La Paulée attendees. Indeed, this short documentary retraces the history of Burgundy, interviews some winemakers, shows scenes of what the Paulée de Meursault is and evokes the future of the region. You will also have a glimpse of my family domaine because my uncle is interviewed, as well as Dominique Lafon, Véronique Drouhin, Thierry Violot-Guillemard and Thiébault Huber.

But first, a teaser from the trailer : click here to see the trailer. 

Three Days of Glory tells the story of the world's largest wine festival in the most legendary of wine regions - known locally as Les Trois Glorieuses - including the lunch titled La Paulée in Meursault. This documentary offers a glimpse into aspects of Burgundy never before filmed. Burgundy is home to some of the most legendary wines on the planet. But it took time and hard work to get there. 

You'll see the journey of several Burgundian producers, including Thiébault Huber of Domaine Huber-Verdereau in Volnay, Patrick Essa of Domaine Buisson-Charles in Meursault and Thierry Violot-Guillemard in Pommard, as they deal with April's devastating frost and the many curveballs that the 2016 vintage sent to winemakers.

A series of difficult years in the 1920s and 1930s led to the creation of events called the Three Days of Glory. This is the story of the traditional and age-old La Paulée, its origins, the sharing of fantastic wines, good times, and the winemakers of today's small estates, who faced a series of brutal years that had a real impact on their harvests.

While grappling with the complications of the present, the winemakers - as well as Burghound's Burgundy expert Allen Meadows and Director Scott Wright - reflect on their place in Burgundy's traditions as well as the role they play in the future of their families' estates.

Three days of Glory is Available for Free on Amazon Prime .

What's Pressoir Drinking? La Paulée de New York Edition...

3/16/2022

By Raj Vaidya

We, the Pressoir community, find ourselves in the throes of back to back La Paulée celebrations, but I wanted to take a moment to reflect on a truly special, once in a lifetime dinner we were honored to host at my alma mater, Restaurant Daniel, last weekend.

Guillaume D’Angerville has become a dear friend over the years. While planning our ideas for the Paulée program for 2022, Daniel and I felt we had to ask a little bit of the impossible of Guillaume; could we do a dinner of exclusively large format bottles of Volnay Premier Cru Clos de Ducs? Guillaume grumbled a bit at first, but then realized this presented a once in a lifetime opportunity to open a bunch of jeroboams that he’s been producing since 2009. We gladly accepted!

The line up started with a flight of Champans, Jeros of 2017, ‘14 and ‘11. While 2011 was a challenging vintage all around the Côte, Guillaume’s wines were likely the most balanced and compelling of the vintage, and this jero confirmed this truth robustly, with an unusual sweetness of fruit for the vintage.

Next two flights of Clos des Ducs, also all from jeros, with the first flight featuring the truly delicious 2017. While the ‘15 vintage was much more heralded (and featured alongside), the ‘17 lived up to its reputation as imminently drinkable.

The stars of the show were definitely in the final flight of Clos des Ducs, with one home run and one surprise showing. The 2009, a stellar vintage since day one, showed incredible power and precision, and was arguably the ‘best’ wine of the line up (as it should be!) But in a surprise to me, it was the 2013 that I found the most charming. The vintage has long been confusing to me aromatically, though I’ve always liked the acid structure. This bottle was astounding, layers upon layers of complexity, nuance and such an elegant and long palate that I was taken aback. As a fun side by side, a guest at the dinner bought a bottle of the same vintage from the restaurant’s wine list, and so we got to see a slightly more advanced example also, a lucky treat.

Lesson learned: wine, especially great, regal wines like these, are best drunk out of giant bottles…