The Pleasure Principal
In every wine lover’s life there are the wines that you never forget and that make you remember what you loved about wine in the first place. There was the bottle of Sean Thackery’s Pleiades that I drank in my college apartment, that made me want to move to California. Later, while living in San Francisco, there was a bottle of Avignonesi Vin Santo that made me want to move to Italy. I have had the privilege to taste many beautiful wines, but I can count on one hand the bottles that were true epiphanies.
Last week at a dinner at Tru in Chicago, I had the opportunity to taste a bottle of 2005 Meo Camuzet from Vosne Romanee that was just such an epiphany. While it did not make me want to pick up and move to Burgundy, it did make me realize just how ethereal, versatile and lovely Pinot Noir could truly be. Through numerous courses of complex foods, it managed to complement each course and hold it’s own. Chad Ellegood, wine director of Tru, describes it as “An expression of place. Extremely ripe with flavors of smoky bacon, as well as fresh and dried rose petals. Exactly what a Vosne Romanee should be” This was also exactly what a Pinot Noir should be and so rarely is. Voluptuous yet elegant. Complex yet balanced. A wine that engaged all of the senses.
It is difficult to say why one work of art moves you and another leaves you cold or why certain wines, meals and flavors linger in your mind. Apart from wine descriptions, what make a wine transcend being simply pleasant into something that is pure pleasure? (more…)
