La Paulée Des champs ~ Maison troisgros

June 6, 2024

Raj Vaidya

Our team is slowly getting back into the groove of ‘business as usual’ after a tremendous few days working alongside the team at Maison Troisgros outside of Roanne, France. We hosted three days of festivities during our second edition of La Paulée des Champs, a Burgundy extravaganza that spanned the course of two dinners and two lunches, including a La Paulée style BYO, and as I begin to come down from the high of the weekend I thought I should share some of the vinous highlights.

The first evening kicked off with a tasting of the 2022 vintage, a really stellar and delicious introduction to what will surely be an excellent range of wines for decades to come. We followed this up with a dinner focused on the 2017 vintage (a nice corollary to the ‘22’s, similar in many ways) at Le Central, the family’s casual bistro. The following day kicked off with a Delamotte lunch and several bits of fun entertainment, a classic French quartet, pétanque and lots of merry-making. Friday evening was the main dinner, featuring Cesar Troigros’ delicate and nuanced cuisine at its finest.

The six domaines in attendance (plus Champagnes Delamotte & Salon) put their very best foot forward with the wine selections. The absolute highlight for me were the flights of Roulot (Charmes 2011 and 2008 from magnum) and Roumier (Bonnes Mares and Amoureuses 2007 from magnum) but every wine showed incredibly well, and contributed beautifully to the ambience of a very fine evening.

Saturday was our La Paulée BYO lunch, and the attendees and vignerons (with many of the new generation) came strong, with some truly memorable bottles, some highlights of which are represented in photos below. Too much great wine!

A couple of fancy bottles shared on Friday evening.

A pristine bottle of ‘72 Clos des Chênes

Impromptu vertical tasting of Roumier Chambolle Villages

Another wonderful Lafarge, this time not direct from the domaine but in amazing shape!

It was truly a magical weekend. Thanks to all of you who joined us and can’t wait to do it again!

What's Pressoir Drinking?

by Raj Vaidya
Tuesday, February 9th, 2021

A few weeks ago while Daniel, Edouard and I were visiting producers in France and producing the content for our upcoming La Paulée Mondiale, I had the opportunity to share this tremendous bottle with three of my most revered and respected vignerons. I carried it with us from NY and planned to share it with them over a quick casse-croûte at the home of Frédéric and Jocelyn Mugnier, along with Christophe Roumier and Véronique Drouhin. When thinking of what to bring to share with them, Daniel and I discussed possibly going with a bottle of Chambolle-Musigny, perhaps even an Amoureuses, as this was the topic of our interview and recordings that day. But I figured that would be like bringing a knife to a gunfight, so I suggested a bottle that could invoke similar emotions to the great Burgundy wines we all love and even a slightly similar finesse and delicacy, albeit with totally different aromatics and flavor profile.

We chose to bring this 1961 Burlotto from Verduno in Barolo, a pristine bottle I’d been lucky enough to find at retail last year. Burlotto was responsible for a exceptional bottle of ‘45 Daniel and I drank some years back at a restaurant which was revelatory, so I was excited to try this. Layers upon layers of dried flowers, the typical dried rose for sure but also something akin to violet, even lavender. The wine had that character of tobacco leaves and rust with a distinct sanguine quality also, yet despite all these fairly intense notes was weightless on the palate, extreme and subtle simultaneously. It was a big hit with the Burgundians, which always puts a smile on my face!

Christophe Roumier Discusses an Already Historic Harvest 2020

The Pressoir team is proud to present a series of videos brought to us by Richard Betts, our correspondent in Burgundy, who was able to interview some of the most celebrated winemakers of the region. We are really grateful that these talented men and women took the time to share their views on the unprecedented 2020 vintage. Among them, Christophe Roumier, interviewed in his legendary vineyard of Les Amoureuses, a climat classified Premier Cru but believed to deserve Grand Cru status by many, shares some rare and precious news on the vintage. Christophe, with his expert knowledge of the land, explains his strategy on when to pick each parcel, according to the rain that was expected the day after that interview while also touching on the role played by old vines. The winemaker also gives his opinion on the polarizing subject of whole cluster fermentation.

We hope that you will enjoy this video as much as we did. Stay tuned for more of these with other luminaries such as Dominique Lafon, Veronique Drouhin, Jean-Marc Roulot and many more...

Christophe Roumier in his vineyard “Les Amoureuses”