What's Pressoir drinking - Château la Gaffeliere 1983

Edouard Bourgeois
January 5, 2024

I always like to revisit the great classic region of Bordeaux with older wines like this 1983 Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé of Château La Gaffeliere. I was lucky to snap 24 bottles at auction for a very good price and just on time to celebrate my 40th birthday just a week ago!

These mature Bordeaux from lesser-known chateaux perfectly illustrate why Bordeaux has had such a global reputation for so long. The high proportion of Merlot (around 75%, the rest being Cabernet Franc) offers this caressing structure of refined tannins, especially after forty years. This aging ability is in fact a signature of La Gaffeliere.

Nested between the hills of Pavie and Ausone, Château La Gaffelière sits in a premium spot and the family de Malet Roquefort, who has run the estate with passion for more than 3 centuries, doesn’t fail to embrace it.

According to Bordeaux standards, the total estate is relatively small with about 22 hectares of vines reserved for the Grand Vin produced at la Gaffelière.

This is also a wine that carries a particularly high sentimental value for me since I shared a bottle of that same vintage with two of my friends with the same birth year as mine. This was a very long time ago when we were teenagers. The wine has aged gracefully. Hopefully I have too

Recap of our Pressoir.wine Right Bank Bordeaux Dinner

December 8, 2021
by Edouard Bourgeois

As a Burgundy lover, I always felt particularly charmed by the round and polished style of the wines from the Libournais, also known as the right bank of the Bordeaux region. With Merlot starring as a soloist or at the very least as the main actor in the blend, the wines typically have fewer sharp edges than the more herbaceous Cabernet Sauvignon of the left bank, particularly those of the famous Médoc.

Last Thursday, we were honored to host our Bordeaux dinner at Francie. The Brooklyn restaurant, opened not even a year ago and already a foodie destination, put together a feast focused on meat dishes, including their signature aged duck and one of the best côte de boeuf a carnivore could imagine. The lineup of twelve wines, evenly split between the Pomerol and Saint-Emilion appellations, delivered an impressive performance, despite their age. The oldest wine was a superb 1964 Château Beauséjour from the Saint-Emilion appellation, whose eponymous town and surrounding vineyards was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other highlights for me were the Chateau La Conseillante Pomerol from the challenging 1979 vintage. A suave and graceful wine in which Merlot was spiced up with just enough Cabernet Franc to reach impeccable balance. Still in the Pomerol vicinity, I really enjoyed the side-by-side comparison of Châteaux Trotanoy and Vieux Château Certan from the same 1985 vintage. The former displayed a slight austerity at first while the latter VCC held your hand to enter a wonderful world, filled with scents of ripe plums and dark chocolate, with earthy notes of tobacco swirling in the air.

In Saint-Emilion, the exquisite bottle of Cheval Blanc 1988 certainly won my heart. Perfection comes to mind when trying to describe it. A wine at its peak, mature but lively and proud. We closed that impressive tasting with a bottle of Pavie from the same 1988 vintage, now ranked alongside Figeac, Cheval Blanc and Ausone in the top “A” category of the Saint-Emilion classification. I still can’t believe how youthful this wine was. Despite decanting the wine a couple hours prior, it was still gasping for oxygen to develop its full, impressive potential.

The gorgeous lineup, decanted and awaiting under the careful eye of “Francie”

What's Pressoir Drinking?

Chateau Pichon Longueville-Comtesse de Lalande Pauillac 2005

A few years ago, I acquired a lot at an auction that consisted in a vertical of one of my favorite Bordeaux properties. Often referred to as “Pichon Comtesse”, this second growth on the 1855 ranking system, a classification I agree could use an update, always delivers. The lot I won included a few 2008s, offering excellent balance of tannins and fruit although a bit shy on the palate. A single bottle of 2003 was also part of it and displayed the expected stewy, plummy quality from such an exceptional vintage, remembered for its unusual heat waves in the country, sometimes producing raisiny grapes.

Last Saturday, though, I finally opened the more sought-after 2005 and the only bottle I won in this parcel. That was a reminder that I should drink more Bordeaux. The wine jumped out from the glass, a sign that it achieved a peak in its aging process. While I was decanting it, I could smell the generous aromas of the gorgeous Pauillac. On the nose and the palate, the explosive character was reaffirmed. Lots of irresistible sweet fruit, cigar box and spice mix, all delicately wrapped up in the most noble lacy texture.

As a Burgundy-focused drinker, I often shy away from opening a bottle of Bordeaux because tannins are not my best friends. But, just like the winegrower who harvests the fruit at the perfect maturity, opening a bottle that has reached its peak is a divine experience. Tannins soften up and leave just enough grip to make the wine textured, but not hard.

Bordeaux doesn’t have to be that serious!

Climate, the Latest Challenge for Burgundy

June 30th, 2020

By Edouard Bourgeois

(inspired by an original article from Wine Searcher)

Once again, this year, many European vineyards are being scorched by high temperatures. In a conversation with winemaker Mathieu Lapierre of Beaujolais (who also did a great Pressoir.wine At Home Session with us!) he was telling me that if the weather patterns continue on the same schedule, he will be done harvesting by September. One month early!

The veracity of the terroir and its classification based on geographical traits (altitude, slope, location) is starting to be questioned among wine professionals. Is terroir immutable?

In some areas, some audacious changes have been made, such as in Bordeaux where it is, since 2019, legal for winemakers to blend Marselan and Touriga Nacional (the main varietal of Port!) into their Bordeaux AOC and Bordeaux Superieur AOC. On the other hand, Burgundy, famous for its thousand-year-old, monasterial hierarchy of “climats” seems really set in stone. But with temperatures rising across the region, many fear the historically warmer Grands Cru sites are going to start producing California style Pinot Noirs. In fact, two Burgundy growers hinted (maybe jokingly) that they were going to do some experiments with Syrah. Ironically, vineyards higher up in altitude like Bourgogne Hautes Cote de Nuits, long considered to be too cold, are enjoying better ripening temperatures and indeed just got “cooler”.