The Power of Blind Tasting

by Edouard Bourgeois
December 7, 2022

One of the reasons why I love working in the wine world is that it presents the opportunity to surprise myself and others. A great way to experience an eye opening moment is through blind tastings. I am not always good at it, yet I love the exercise and the discipline it requires. This is also the most humbling and honest approach one can have with wine. On the other hand, I do not dismiss the benefit of tasting a wine, knowing what it is. It is a bit like when a gorgeous looking dish with artful presentation hits the table. The eye tells the palate to get ready for a treat and we start salivating! With wine, opening that dusty bottle you have been saving for years triggers high expectations and you may start enjoying the wine even before your first sip. Performing blind tasting just requires a different mindset and approach to wine.

One of our most supportive Burgundy vignerons, the marquis Guillaume d’Angerville, tells a story that really resonates with me. Guillaume used to enjoy visiting one of his favorite fine dining restaurants in Paris and would always play a blind tasting game with the resident sommelier there. The one rule was simple. He would ask the sommelier to bring a bottle of wine he felt Guillaume would enjoy, from anywhere but Burgundy. As most of you know, Guillaume runs the well-established Domaine Marquis d’Angerville in Volnay. One day, the sommelier brought him a white wine, previously poured into a decanter, making it impossible to identify. Guillaume brought the glass to his nose, took a sip and immediately called the sommelier over. Guillaume told him he had evidently forgotten the rule about serving anything but a Burgundy! Although he was very pleased with this beautiful wine, he was convinced it had been from his beloved Cote d’Or… The sommelier replied to him with two things. First, he hadn’t forgotten the rule, as this was not Burgundy. Second, he did congratulate Guillaume for identifying Chardonnay correctly.

The wine poured that night was a bottle of Stéphane Tissot’s Chardonnay Arbois Les Bruyères 2005 and it left such an impression on Guillaume that it inspired him to begin a search for vineyards in the Jura. A few years later, Domaine du Pelican was born with the inaugural vintage 2012, a winery still making excellent wines in the Jura and run by Guillaume d’Angerville.

But more on that Domaine Tissot. Meeting Stéphane Tissot is just as intense as it is to taste his wines. The joyful and dynamic gentleman is constantly thinking about something new. This level of talent is rarely seen and he is able to combine it with an amazing creativity. It is no surprise that such a character produces around 28 different cuvées, depending on the vintage, from bone dry whites to sweet “passerillé” wines with everything in between, a dozen red wines using traditional Jura grape varieties but also a fortified “Macvin”, sparkling Crémants and the most Jurassic of all, the mysterious Vin Jaune.

The vineyard of La Mailloche shares similarities with those found in Burgundy, being a complex geological mix where both clay and limestone play the most important roles. it is understandable why one could mistake this Arbois for a great Meursault perhaps. Although after deeper analysis, the unique terroir of the Jura shines through and leaves his signature.

The bottle pictured here is one that I ordered at one of my favorite places to eat and drink (and more!) in Beaune, La Maison du Colombier. I always feel like biting my tongue after telling someone they have the best wine list in Beaune but I think the cat has been out of the bag for a while anyway. That night, I was with some of my dear team members and a few clients who we had just spent the day with, drinking one gorgeous bottle of Burgundy after the other, from Montrachet to Chambertin. I decided to play the blind tasting game and ordered this “Mailloche”. Despite a much lower price point than the prestigious Burgundies, the Jurassic Chardonnay didn’t disappoint at all. Serving it blind was a good idea indeed.

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…

A tasting of the 2018 harvest from the Marquis d'Angerville in Volnay

by Daniel Johnnes, Max Goldberg Liu & Raj Vaidya
Tuesday, December 2, 2020

Tasting the D'Angerville 2018s was exciting and filled with anticipation as it was one of my first post bottling tasting of this vintage and I wasn't sure what to expect. Often a wine can shut down post bottling but these were true to my early impressions of the wines in barrel. It was a sunny vintage but these wines avoided the heavy, raisiny character that can show in a hot summer. They were rich and textured but had a lovely balanced freshness. Two wines stood out for me, punching above their weight class, starting with the Volnay 1er Cru. Although from several fine 1er Cru climats, this one had terrific breadth and class.

The other over-achiever was the Volnay 1er Cru Champans. This is always a charmer but in this vintage I found wonderful depth and complexity that I don't normally get. The Taillepieds, Caillerets and Clos des Ducs came in just where you would expect them to be - Superb! Bravo Guillaume…

~Daniel

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A takeaway for me from this tasting is that these wines really characterize how many growers in Burgundy (and especially the crème de la crème like d’Angerville) have mastered these warmer vintages in making wines with superb balance between richness and freshness. All of the wines were delicious and open for business but a standout was definitely the Volnay 1er Cru, which is around 2/3 Mitans and 1/3 Pitures. A clear step up in density and depth from the Volnay Village, the Premier Cru blend is only around 15% more expensive, making it a no-brainer value.

~Max

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I was also concerned about this vintage showing too much ripeness or a lack of precision but my fears were quickly put at ease. A few cuvées had some unusual weight to it but all in all the range was quite balanced. Guillaume told us that despite the slightly higher alcohol on some of the cuvées the wines of great pedigree found harmony easily, and I’d agree. As Daniel noted, the Champans stood out as superlative for its place in the line up, usually a wine which I think of as inferior (albeit slightly) to Caillerets, Taillepieds and Clos des Ducs. But the ‘18 seems on par with these in quality. I had a special affinity for the Caillerets, as I often do, being that it is the stoniest. Tremendous showing!

~Raj

Wines we tasted:

Volnay
Volnay 1er Cru
Volnay 1er Cru Fremiets
Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Angles
Volnay 1er Cru Champans
Volnay 1er Cru Caillerets
Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds
Volnay 1er Cru Clos des Ducs

News from the Vineyard - Special Harvest Edition

August 25, 2020
by Justine Puaud & Max Goldberg Liu

NEWS FROM BURGUNDY

Côte de Beaune

This year is historically early for many growers in Burgundy.

Guillaume d’Angerville finished on August 25th which was the start date of his previous earliest harvest - 2003. This is a very different vintage than 2003, however - so far the grapes coming in have been very well balanced with good concentration due to the late summer drought, and are not at all overripe or dramatically low in acidity. Sanitary conditions are excellent as well - there is almost no need for a sorting table.

Thus far, weather conditions have been perfect - beautiful sunny days and cool nights, and growers are crossing their fingers that it continues.

Frédéric and Clothilde Lafarge finished the first day of harvest with a big smile, declaring the quality of the grapes to be amazing and forecasting 2020 as a great vintage. So far, the Lafarges are equally happy with the quality of both the whites and the reds. They should finish the harvest Friday evening and will be celebrating their Paulée with the vendangeurs.

Be sure to check out the video below with Fred Lafarge that our friends Richard and Carla Rza Betts captured the other day. Richard and Carla are in Burgundy this week capturing exclusive content for the Pressoir.wine Club, so be sure to look out for more footage from the harvest.

Beautiful cool harvest weather (Nicolas Rossignol, August 24, 2020)

Rapid fermentation of Clos du Château des Ducs (Clothilde Lafarge, Domaine Lafarge)

Early morning at Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault Charmes (August 23, 2020)

Côte de Nuits

As is usually the case, the Côte de Nuits was generally a little behind the Côte de Beaune in starting the harvest, and the quality is looking to be equally as high.

Véronique Drouhin remarked that her Griotte-Chambertin was quite small in quantity but that the small bunches look magnificent.

Bonnes Mares (Domaine Hudelot-Baillet, August 25, 2020)

La Romanée being picked on August 26, 2020 (Louis-Michel Liger-Belair)

Griotte-Chambertin (Véronique Drouhin, August 22, 2020)

NEWS FROM CHAMPAGNE

2020 is also a historic vintage in Champagne: the earliest harvest on record.

This is the third warm year in a row producing beautifully ripe grapes. Many Champenois are comparing the trio of 2018, 2019, 2020 to the heralded trilogy of 1988, 1989, 1990. There are many similarities in growing conditions, precocity of the harvest, good ripeness, and clean fruit.

Many of the winemakers are finishing picking and pressing Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. Some of the Chardonnay is in but growers in the Côte des Blancs are waiting a bit longer to pick.

Rodolphe Péters of Pierre Péters is proud of how his Chardonnay vines have handled the changing climate: “This brings me to a thought about VERSATILITY, having a look back to the recent history of Champagne. What was the grape variety which used to be harvested the first when the climate was very challenging and cool and harvest was taken place in late September or October? And what is now the latest grape variety to be picked, while we face impacts of the global warming and must manage every year earlier and earlier harvests ? Only one answer in both cases: Chardonnay.”

Our friend Marie-Pascale Do-Dinh is in Champagne this week - we look forward to sharing the footage and photos of her visits with you in the coming weeks.

Pinot Noir from 1er Cru Les Noues in Ecueil at Champagne Frédéric Savart (August 26, 2020)

AR Lenoble is finishing pressing Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Harvest started simultaneously in Krug’s Clos d’Ambonnay and Clos du Mesnil. (Olivier Krug, August 26, 2020)

Chardonnay from the top part of Les Hautes Chèvres (Vincent Laval, August 25, 2020)