Garagiste

• By Jon Rimmerman
  11/30/2007 (link)

  (BRESSAN Pinto Grigio) UPDATE: Gaja Many of you are better sleuths than I give you credit for. Whoever uncovered the fact that Piero’s vineyard is basically inside Gaja’s (separated by only a dirt tractor path that is barely wide enough to carry a horse) is pretty good. I neglected to tell you that fact in both of the Barbaresco Riserva offers (which would have made them even more enticing) because they don’t want that to be the reason why people buy the wines - they should stand on their own. However, I do like the tag line one of our customers sent me “it’s like Gaja, minus one of the $0’s in the price”... Before we get a new round of order requests on these, we are sold out of both. If you want to get on the waiting list for the 2000 Pier Villa Riserva or 2000 Pier Rio Sordo Riserva , let Niki know but I don’t think we'll have an answer for a few months: niki@garagistewine.com -Jon Rimmerman ************************ Bressan Dear Friends, There is probably the last offer for the week as I need to take a rest after this - I'm exhausted just from reading it again (besides, how do you follow this with anything meaningful - better off to just let it lie until the sun rises again next week). This is always one of my favorite and most enlightening offers of the year. If I had to choose one wine to drink on a desert island I would give consideration to one of these and that’s saying a lot - really a lot. I’m not sure if they would make the overall #1 slot but I would put them in the final cut (that is a very difficult question to answer as I would probably choose something more sentimental like a filigreed and captivating 1969). We’ve been offering these wines for the past five years or so and they continue to amaze many of you while challenging others to the point of dumping them down the drain. I am certainly in the former camp but I can see why past releases have been too eccentric for some. With that statement behind us, there is no question that Fulvio Bressan is second only to Miani in Friuli and many prefer the wines of Bressan to Miani (I’m not going to touch that comparison so don’t ask). From an area that combines the feeling of Transylvania with the beauty of Italy, think Sean Thackrey in his hey-day circa 1987 where the Orion barrels rested on his outside lawn and rumors of Camel cigarette buts being tossed into the fermenting vats were probably more than fable... A near recluse with respect to wine critics, journals or fanfare - his efforts are why so many of us spend so much time chasing this hobby - to find that one ray of light we hold onto, like a distant memory that gets better every time we retrieve it from our ageing cerebral cortex. Instead of being spoon-fed the same old wines that you can get from a hundred hawkers in every state, I would much rather you save up to explore and experiment with a group of wines as profound as these - even if you end-up not liking any of them. What they bring in educational value is worth the investment. All are original cellar stock with perfect provenance - cellared at the winery and just now released. We were offered 10 of his creations and I’ve paired it down to these five (impossible to choose between these - all are of equal weight). Ignore vintages, he doesn’t bottle based on vintage and what’s in the bottle may not be from that vintage anyway - there are no rules at Bressan. Please remember, these are artisanal wines that will be much loved by many but I would not recommend serving them to the unsuspecting as their overwhelming complexity may be too much for the uninitiated. Then again, you may gain a friend for life... If any of this matters at this point, Bressan comes from nine generations of winemaking in Friuli. He uses 2000-liter wood foudres that would make Conterno (Monfortino) jealous. He only yields two clusters per-vine, in some cases one cluster. He cuts the entire bunch, one cluster at a time and then only uses the shoulders of the cluster in whole clumps and individual berries (the rest is made into jam, grappa or sold off). Production is very small on each - not really actual production. Insane? Possibly. Special? Maybe the world’s most special portfolio of wines from top to bottom but with only 20-40 cases produced of some of these he remains a myth to most. It’s one thing to make a single wine that is considered a world-class effort but he makes 10-15 nearly by himself? Tough to argue with as the results speak for themselves and this is as far from marketing as I can get. Here goes - all direct form the source with perfect provenance, some at lower prices than in Italy: 2003 Bressan Pinot Grigio Upon first glance the casual wine drinker, thinks “what’s this?”. The label looks hand made (it is) and there is no credible vintage date on the bottle, just a hand pressed date done with a .25-cent rubber stamp. Most of them are smeared and illegible by the time they get to the US anyway but with Bressan that’s exactly the point. A little of this, a little of that (maybe it’s not even Pinot Grigio - it is half 2001 juice?) but what it is translates very easily: magic. Worth any price and one of the great pre-oxidative white wine memories you will have from the cologne scented aromatics alone....VERY RARE (Basically, not commercially available - the Pinot Grigio is line-priced with the Verduzzo which is the white he commercially releases. Why he prices these the same I don’t know, as the Pinto Grigio should be a lot more but take advantage...). 2000 Bressan No. 3 What is the No. 3 you ask? Who knows? What I do know is that there are portions of Pinot Noir, Schiopettino and Cabernet in the wine but there may also be Ribolla or Malvasia as well. See above paragraph and add to the last sentence “for a red wine”. Translucent and almost Pinot Noir-like, there were versions of Musk produced circa 1980 that were not this aromatic. Tidy, neat and complete at first and then the wine opens to reveal the tell-tale Bressan idiosyncratic elements that make owning and enjoying these satin and earth-laden treats such a pleasure. I think there may be a dose of Merlot in this as well (think Miani Merlot not Napa). 2002 Bressan Pinot Noir (special bottling) I’m afraid to ask what a “special bottling” from Bressan may lead to but he likes it...a lot. I haven’t tasted this cask but that is irrelevant. I can guarantee most of you will not like this but I would still buy it. Should be advanced in color and a heap of rotting leaves, acid and a whirlwind of red berries swirling around your mind. (Oh yeah, with a 60 second, silk-laden finish). VERY RARE (he barely sells this outside of the winery). 1997 Bressan Pignol Cru This is a red wine. I’ve never sworn in an offer before (or said something as corny as “this rocks”) but I’m tempted to just say this is amazing sh**. Autumnal, intricate, full of mystery, acids, medium bodied, elegant but so powerful with a little ball of red fruit acting like a nuclear trigger with nectar that blows out the back-end like a cannonball. Changes over 4-8 hours, filing in with a dense silk and cashmere center that unravels into something so divine. Light camphor and mint essence. The S never finishes a glass of wine as nothing can measure up and she drank this entire bottle. Maybe the Beatles felt this way during the recording of Magical Mystery Tour...one of the rarest wines in Friuli. All are EXTREMELY LIMITED (some have only 20 x 6-packs for the entire US) Thank you, Jon Rimmerman Garagiste Seattle, WA Italy9861 Italy9862 Italy9863 Italy9864