This is a gorgeous shot. The barista is used some nice advanced Pavoni techniques here. Note that he:
– Pre-warms the shot glass using the steam wand
– Pulls the handle up just under the area where the water fills BEFORE locking in the portafilter handle in gently
– Pushes down the handle in the pre-infusion until it reaches a bit of resistance but raises it again before doing a full pull.
Also notice how much pressure he has to exert while pulling the shot. This is how it is supposed to be. If you are pulling a shot with no resistance, you’ll need to work on a combination of grinding finer and tamping a bit harder.

Thanks for your excellent blog – A question watching this video, on my Pavoni the lever cannot sit still like that on its own at 45 degrees when up to pressure, before attaching the portafilter to make a shot . It automatically sinks down? The barmeter on my machine finally halts (after letting out some initial air from the steam pipe) at 1,2 – 1,3 (just in the red zone) Is this bad?
It’s a work of art!!!