2002 Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru

“I’d rather have 2023 every year than 2024,” quips Alec Seysses. There are two simultaneous grouped tastings, one for the Brits and the other for the “rest of the world.” “We conducted a green harvest as we knew the vintage would be large. It’s a gamble because if the summer is dry then the grapes can be smaller. We picked the first whites on September 1 in Puligny Folatières, which we slightly chaptalized, and then on September 6 we did the Puligny Combettes. We finished with the reds on September 15. The September heatwave was surprising because usually it is July or August. We have never picked under such warm temperatures, and so everything was picked in the mornings before 1 p.m. We have never had such a large picking team: between 60 and 70 people. We did not want the fruit too warm, but our tanks are temperature-controlled, so we cooled the fruit to 20°C. The yields are around 45-48 hl/ha for the reds. We destemmed a little more than we normally do because of the volume, and we got caught out by some of the vats at the beginning [being too full], so overall, around 20-30% were destemmed. Maybe that was a little more than we needed to do? The alcohol levels are around 13.5% with a couple of exceptions at 14%. Our cellars were colder in 2024, and we have more efficient air conditioning, so the malo was slower and later than usual. Finally, apart from the Nuits Saint-Georges, 2023 will be the last vintage for the négociant wines under Dujac Frère & Soeur.”

Like the previous vintage, Domaine Dujac organized two or three “classes” in the vat room. So, I tasted their 2022s with around 20 other importers and writers, seated in rows and desperately hoping not to be put into detention. This has advantages and disadvantages. Jeremy Seysses tutored the tasting and offered his insights into the vintage, the first vinified in their newly-built winery opposite the family home in Morey-Saint-Denis.

“We are still learning about the particularities of the winery,” he begins. Obviously, with brand new vats operating in a completely new environment, this will have unexpected effects on the must and the fermenting wine, something that can only be learned through experience. “The vintage is in line with what is described as the ‘new normal.’ We didn’t have a relentless heat wave like we had in 2003. We have cooler nights, but the wines still have acidity. In the 1990s, we had much more malic acid, so there has been a significant shift in pH during élevage [that is to say, malolactic has less effect since there is less malic to convert into lactic acid]. Also, the timing of picking has an impact.”

“We started picking on August 30 in Puligny Folatières, picking the whites and some reds until September 2, mainly in the morning and early afternoon. It’s not easy getting a full crew of pickers, and you can lose part of your team during the day, so you have to pace the harvest. The fruit was clean, apart from minor oïdium for the whites and a little grillure for the reds. It was large in volume, up to 45 to 48hL/ha for the Premier Crus. Most alcohol levels are between 12.8% and 13.5%, around 13% for the whites. We are working on having permanent cover crops with higher trellising [to inhibit higher alcohol levels]. The whites were acidified in the must as early as possible. We used to do punch-downs three times a day on some tanks, but now it’s more like one every other day, and now we do an 11 or 12-day maceration, whereas it used to be more like 15 or 16 days. Since there is less nitrogen in the soil, it can lead to more sluggish ferments and potentially more reductive wines. There is around 85% whole bunch across all the cuvées although I feel it’s a vintage where the stems do not make such an impact. There is no chaptalization. Most malos were done early, and the wines were racked in June.”

Asked what he felt about the 2022s, Seysses opined that they are less “thuggish” than some of the 2018s, an evocative word for that vintage. The Clos de la Roche and Clos Saint-Denis are level pegging at the moment, whereas in previous vintages, I usually err towards the latter. Yet the Gevrey Combottes, always one of Dujac’s strongest cards, matches them pound-for-pound. But for me, the most excitement lies in the two Vosne Premier Crus: Les Beau Monts and Les Malconsorts – wonderful expressions of their respective sites. I think the assiduous lowering of whole bunches from 100% to around 80-85% results in characterful wines not defined by the stem addition. Rather, the technique enhances their individual terroirs’ expressions. I am not sure their 2022s will rank among the best in Dujac’s career. Then again, they have overseen some of the greatest Burgundy wines I’ve ever drunk. I think the vintage contains some gems that will mature beautifully in bottle.

In a change of format, this year Dujac hosts a “classroom” of journalists in their newly-built cuverie, desks surrounded by double-jacketed stainless-steel vats that were installed due to their wish to control fermentations more closely as global warming increases microbial activity. Jeremy Seysses remarks that the collective tasting is principally designed to reduce constant re-opening of barrels in a vintage where there are fewer of them. It affords a chance to compare cuvées, though it also means there is no one-on-one exchange, which is why we spend so much time in the region.

“The yields are 30% to 75% down with the whites heavily affected,” Seysses comments. “We started the harvest on 24 September. I was worried about the sugar levels, but good weather ultimately helped concentration. Acidity levels were pretty good, though it is not a year like 2008. It might be controversial, but I feel it has some eighties feel to it, with more concentration. In terms of mouthfeel and volume, it feels like 1985 to me.”

Diana Snowden, Seysses wife and co-winemaker takes over to tutor us through the wines and give us additional insights.

“We tried different techniques to delay budding, though, in the end, we reverted to the age-old ‘prune later’ technique. We tried leaving one cane as a kind of sacrifice to slow the sap, but it didn’t really work. It’s hard to prune late when you farm 18 hectares. We are trialling organic and biodynamic techniques side-by-side in the vineyard. We do find some differences in the acidity, but only very slightly. When you walk through the vineyard, the biodynamic vines are neater, the branches growing vertically upwards. Around 20% was de-stemmed in 2021 [figures per cuvée within tasting notes] and chaptalized up to 13% alcohol. We generally did three punch-downs, which is much less than before. All wines went through malo quite early. The Grand Crus are matured in 70% new oak. They’ll be put into tank before Christmas and then bottled in January. Henceforth, we will use bottling service as we believe the quality is better.”

There is a MASSIVE hole in Morey-Saint-Denis. Either somebody is attempting to tunnel to the centre of the Earth or somebody is building a new cellar. In this case, it is the latter, since the Seysses family are finally expanding, building a new facility that will hopefully be inaugurated in 2022. “The walls will be made of hay,” Jeremy Seysses informs me just before tasting kicked-off. Apparently, it will have eco-friendly features such as a wooden structure and the ability to recycle all its CO2 emissions. Obviously, the depth of the aforementioned hole indicates that it will be a gravity-fed winery. Seysses also mentioned how it will afford them more temperature control. Warmer conditions at harvests mean that the fruit itself needs cooling to retard and prolong the alcoholic fermentation.

I tasted with Jeremy’s brother, Alec. “It was a tiring growing season for vineyards,” he told me. “I don’t place too much stock in the rain just before harvest and how it changed the fruit, but I think the vineyards that were in better shape and maybe organic, reacted better to the water. We are in that vein of warming vintages since 2014. It’s a blessing. Previous generations dreamed of vintages like this. The négoce wines were picked towards the end of the harvest that finished on 19 September. The picking in 2018 was more spread out - we felt we had to get everything in efficiently as soon as possible. The yields in 2019 were reasonably average, but nothing catastrophic, maybe 10% less than a normal vintage whereas in 2020 it is up and down depending upon vineyard. We used 85% to 90% whole clusters, négoce a little below that figure, especially on the Gevrey side. We have toned down the new oak in recent years, for example, the Grand Crus were raised in 70% new oak instead of 100%.” The whites are racked and in tank. The négoce wines have not been racked and will soon go straight to tank to be bottled.”

What can I say? I thought this was a stupendous, at times thrilling set of 2019s from Dujac, particularly in the Vosne-Romanée and Morey-Saint-Denis appellations. The Clos de la Roche is spellbinding, the Malconsorts spine-tingling and the Romanée-Saint-Vivant so sublime I wanted to elope with it. Whereas I felt some producers slightly misjudged the proportion of stem addition, here I found the stems neatly assimilated and never transgressed onto terroir expression or purity of fruit. Then again, Jacques Seysses was one of the early proponents using whole clusters and is still around to give sage advice.

Visiting Domaine Dujac in the heart of Morey-Saint-Denis is always one that I look forward to, not only because of the quality of wines, but for the candid assessment of the growing season courtesy of Alec Seysses. This year, it was nice to see his father Jacques who passed through. I grabbed him for a couple of minutes to glean some information on Clos Saint-Denis - Vinous readers can expect an epic vertical in the future. Back to pressing matters and the 2018 vintage. "We picked the whites on 29/30 August and the reds 4/5 September, finishing 10 days later. It was special: a drawn out harvest. It’s the first time we have seen such spread in terms of ripeness. We had to keep stopping and starting. I think [this variegation] was because of localized thunderstorms, which means that average rainfall varied from one village to another. To give you an example, we picked Clos de la Roche at 13.4% and then picked some of the Vosne-Romanées at barely 13.0% around eight days later. There was mildew in Vosne but we didn’t really suffer from it, so I don’t think it’s that. Maybe it was uneven flowering? After a difficult vintage in the vineyards, we were pleased with the quality once we began picking. The yields are all over the place, the whites incredibly generous, near the legal limit for whites and reds. Everyone was calling each other, looking for spare barrels. We used 90% whole cluster on the domaine wines. The 2018 is a vintage where we would normally have used 100% but we found that the bunches at the top of the vat can become damaged, so we now de-stem a little. In terms of maceration, in 2018 we did less punch downs and more pumpovers. When I started in the early 2000s we might have done three in a day, but it's more a question of when you do it. My father is good at keeping data. We found that he had moved from late to early punchdowns. When we experimented with later punchdowns we found there was little difference between the two. The tannins are so ripe that you can easily go beyond what you need. The average alcohol is 13.5% and nothing is above 14%. This will be a vintage that will live in Burgundy folklore."

Maybe it is only in the last couple of years that I have truly appreciated Jacques Seysses’s influence upon Burgundy. Not only has Dujac been one of the most prominent Morey-Saint-Denis producers since debuting in 1969, but Seysses’s winemaking philosophy, and in particular the use of whole bunches, has had a profound effect upon the next generation of vignerons. Bottles from the 1970s and 1980s imbibed at Tour d’Argent last January attest to this, proof that Seysses unquestionably has the magic touch. Over the last decade, Dujac has been steered into the future by the next generation: sons Jeremy and Alec, and Jeremy’s American-born wife Diana Snowden Seysses.

Alec Seysses greeted me at the winery in the heart of Morey-Saint-Denis and guided me down to a very busy barrel cellar. As he ascended the stepladder to extract his two whites, both maturing in concrete eggs, I asked him about the 2017 growing season. “Both 2016 and 2018 had their own difficulties, but 2017 was a more quiet season, an easy-going season, remarkable in the sense of just being nice. Spring and summer were good without being extraordinary. It was always going to be early vintage, although that is now becoming the norm.” Seysses digressed into more global implications of a warmer climate. “That kind of worries me. We are picking a degree more alcohol than when my father started, which we know from our own records. That extra degree has helped here, whereas in other wine regions it has not. But we have more unpredictable weather - dry spells, hail, frost and so on. So far, we have navigated our way through, but how long can we keep doing that?”

He then returned to the vintage under the spotlight. “The whites were picked from August 25, with the Puligny-Montrachets followed by the Morey-Saint-Denis Village. The Monts Luisants needed an extra week due to the hail damage [as at Domaine Ponsot]. The whites were racked just before the 2018 harvest. The 2017 reds were picked from around September 3. We did fewer punch-downs because we preferred to just let the tannins come out, and alcohol levels are between 12.4° and 13.3°. The négoce wines will be racked into tank and bottled in December and the domaine wines will be bottled January to late March.”

I asked his opinion of the quality of the 2017s, and as usual, Alec replied candidly. “I don’t think they are as great as 2015 and 2016. But I don’t want to put them down, as they are lovely to drink, in the same way that I feel we were too hard on our own 2007s.” I understand his tepid view towards the 2017s, and some cuvées do not match with the very best that I have tasted over years of visiting this domaine. That is simply because they reflect the growing season, and truth is, there are plenty of gems across the range. Whether it is their Gevrey-Chambertin Les Combottes, Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru or Vosne-Romanée Aux Malconsorts, these rank alongside previous vintages, in my opinion. Perhaps the growing season just curtails the quality of their négociant wines under Dujac Fils & Père, and yet they retain so much freshness and balance that they should offer great value, particularly the Morey-Saint-Denis Village.

One interesting nugget of information is the long-term plan for a new winery. “We will build a new winery for the next 50 years,” Alec divulged. “It will be located against the current winery. We want to keep the charm of the place, with our parents living above the winery. The work is due to begin in 2020.” It looks like the Dujac legacy is set to continue for many decades yet.

“We like light, delicate Pinots,” said Jeremy Seysses. “We took it easy on punchdowns in 2016, as we’ve been doing recently in years with dry, warm summers. The wines have a risk of getting harder tannins in drought years." He went on: "The colors came quickly in 2016 and we didn’t want—or need—to push extraction. Once you overshoot your target, you can’t come back.” The Seysses family started harvesting their estate vines on September 26 and finished with their négociant vineyards (Dujac Fils & Père) on October 5, with Jeremy explaining that “some of the négociant vineyards carried higher yields so there was no danger of overripeness.”

Seysses, his wife Diana Snowden and brother Alex vinified the estate and Dujac Fils & Père wines with 80% to 90% whole clusters in 2016. Alcohol levels in the estate’s '16s are between 12.5% and 13% “with some chaptalization,” Seysses added. Today he finds similarities between the 2016s and the 1991s in their youth. Seysses told me that he doesn’t use more than 70% new oak these days, even for his grand crus—and he continues to work with lightly toasted barrels that don’t contribute a vanilla quality. Not long ago that percentage was 80% to 85% and his father Jacques Seysses used 100% for the grand crus.

Seysses told me that he finds a bit more phenolic maturity in the ‘16s than in the ‘15s, although the earlier vintage may have more total polyphenols. The pHs in both vintages are typically between 3.5 and 3.6, although the ‘15s had some help via acidification. Interestingly, when I mentioned 2005 as a possible comparison to 2015, Seysses told me he considers the 2005s on the Côte de Nuits a bit fresher in their fruit character than the ‘15s, despite their sometimes dryer tannins. But he also noted that he finds more pruniness in the ‘16s than in the ‘15s.

“There’s a nice sweetness to the ‘16s, and they have sweet dispositions,” he summarized. “They will age on their balance, while the ‘15s will age on their concentration [yields were typically between 25 and 30 hectoliters per hectare]. Two thousand fifteen is a very good to great vintage. Once I would have called it atypical, but now it’s the way things are headed.”

The Seysses family harvested in 2015 between September 7 and 12, picking their fruit at what Jeremy Seysses described as moderate levels of alcohol, with the vineyards that came in at 12.5% potential alcohol chaptalized to 13%. The average yield was only about 25 hectoliters per hectare, compared to 32 in 2014 and just 21 in 2013.

Seysses did fewer punchdowns than in 2015, noting that “it would have been a mistake to try to make a statement in 2015.” In fact, he did less extraction for the estate wines than for his négociant wines but finds that the the domain cuvées have more structure, which he attributes to organic farming. He noted that the summer of 2015 was actually warmer than that of 2005 but not as dry, adding that there was a danger of getting dry tannins and surmaturité. The malos finished by early spring and the racking was limited to only the barrels that needed it.

Jeremy Seysses was a bit under the weather on the day of my November visit, so I tasted with his wife Diana Snowden, who is also responsible for the Snowden Vineyards wines made by her family in Napa Valley. Snowden described the 2014 vintage at Dujac as "like a better 2007." Yields, she said, were in the "normal" range of 35 hectoliters per hectare. In recent days, Seysses noted that the 2014s "seem quite open at this stage, but the first wines bottled seem to indicate that they will shut down a little in bottle. I see them as medium-term wines that will begin to open up for real in about ten years and that should last a comfortable 25 years in the case of the grand crus."

This is a gorgeous set of wines from Domaine Dujac and the Seysses family. The 2013s offer lovely purity of fruit, striking aromatics and bright, lively acidity. At times, the 2013s remind of smaller-scaled, more approachable versions of the 2010s, which makes this a very classic-feeling vintage. Jeremy Seysses notes that the harvest started on October 7, on the later side for the year. Ripeness was a little lower than normal, so the musts were lightly chaptalized. As always, the wines were vinified with a high percentage of whole clusters. Poor weather during flowering and sorting at harvest resulted in another vintage with lower than normal yields, which is unfortunate for many reasons, not the least of which is that the 2013s are strikingly beautiful. Indeed, this is one of the most impressive collections I tasted.

The first October harvest here since 1980 actually began on October 7, said Jeremy Seysses. "But despite the long hang time of the grapes, the wines aren't jammy," he added. "And the long season helped to lignify the stems, which made it possible for us to vinify mostly whole clusters." Crop levels were mostly between 25 and 28 hectoliters per hectare in the estate's crus, and potential alcohol levels were generally between 11.5% and 12%. Some wines received a full degree of chaptalization. Seysses mentioned that even though he does more punchdowns of the cap in making his négociant wines, the estate cuvées are richer in extract as this fruit comes in riper and with thicker skins. The domain wines had been racked and sulfited about a month before my visit and Seysses expected to bottle them in March.

Domaine Dujac's 2012 are mostly terrific, especially at the top end, although a number of wines present elements of reduction, that quite frankly, I would prefer not to see. Still, there is no question the best wines in this range are every bit as thrilling as they were from barrel, while the top of the pyramid is full of wines that represent the pinnacle of excellence in Burgundy.

This was a splendid vintage here, as very low yields made for grapes with excellent stuffing and phenolic ripeness, allowing Jeremy Seysses to vinify with a high percentage of whole clusters. The wines are mostly very rich and fleshy but without any loss of aromatic perfume and complexity.

"The grape skins developed good tannins in 2012," said Jeremy Seysses."There was very good phenolic ripeness and we didn't feel that we needed to wait any longer to harvest.Plus, with our clonal material, our grapes are simply riper."Grape sugars were in the range of the 12% to 12.8% for the premier crus and very little chaptalization was called for.This is a splendid vintage in the making chez Dujac, with the high percentage of whole-cluster fermentation clearly supported by the wines' ripe fruit.Of course, tiny yields were critical in 2012:20 to 25 hectoliters per hectare for most of the grand crus owing to the high percentage of millerande vines, according to Seysses, and just 19 for the Chambertin.The malos had finished in August and the wines were racked in September.Incidentally, Dujac never does much post-fermentation maceration."Here the polymerization of tannins happens in barrel," Seysses explained.

There isn't much to say about the 2012s at Dujac except that they are magnificent. The low yields of the vintage helped create the conditions for a set of rich, textured wines that with one or two exceptions are highly expressive to site. Jeremy Seysses is one of many winemakers who believe the loose architecture of the clusters was a key element in staving off diseases and keeping the fruit healthy. Of course, even that was not enough to compensate for a poor flowering and the subsequent millerandage (shot berries) that claimed 30-50% of the crop. As always, Seysses opted for a fairly high level of whole clusters in vinification. Across the board, this is one of the most impressive collections of 2012s I tasted in Burgundy. These are also some of the most structured 2012s readers will come across, so patience is going to be key. Readers should also note the Dujac Fils & Père négoce wines are reviewed separately.

Dujac's 2011s capture the essence of the vintage. At the entry-level, the wines often lack depth and show elements of greenness, while at the top end, the wines are simply thrilling. And that is 2011 in a nutshell. Lesser sites struggled to ripen, while the best vineyards have a way of pulling through, even in challenging vintages. Jeremy Seysses opted to use about 70% whole clusters in 2011, although some wines, including the Gruenchers, Échézeaux and Romanée-Saint Vivant, were done entirely with whole clusters. I tasted all of the 2011s from bottle in November 2013, with exception of the Chambolle villages and Échézeaux. For those two wines, these notes are from barrel tastings in November 2012.

Domaine Dujac began picking grapes on September 1, said Jeremy Seysses, but the estate's typical vineyard enjoyed a longer-than-average 110 days between the flowering and the harvest. Potential alcohol levels were in the 11.5% to 12% range, he told me, and following modest chaptalization, the finished 2011s will be about a half degree lower than normal for this domain (typically, Dujac's village wines weigh in at about 12.5%, the premier crus 13% and the grand crus 13.5%). "You can't compare 2011 to any other vintage," said Seysses. "In 2007, there was never any heat, so the tannins didn't really develop. In 2011, the tannins are good and the acidity is bright; the flavors are more dark fruits than red." Interestingly, Seysses told me that the grapes offered more phenolic ripeness in 2011 than in 2010. "But there are a lot of contradictions with this vintage, such as an herbal character with black fruits, and long hang time with low alcohol." Most of the 2011s were vinified with at least 80% whole clusters. With the exception of the Chambolle-Musigny Les Gruenchers, none of the wines had been racked at the time of my November tasting.

Jeremy Seysses told me that his family eliminated about 25% of the fruit in 2010, "for rot, not for underripeness," and that that percentage was comparable to 2008. He finds that the young 2010s shows similar "thickness and energy" to the 2008s. Potential alcohols were generally a shade over 12%, and following moderate chaptalization the village wines are now around 12.5%, the premier crus 12.8% to 13%, and the grand crus 13% to 13.5%. Due to the high percentage of millerandage, the estate vinified with a substantial percentage of whole clusters in 2010: 90% or more for numerous cuvees. Most of the 2010s were racked for the first time after the 2011 harvest, and some of the wines were quite reduced in November. Interestingly, pHs here are often a tad higher in 2010 than they were in 2009--3.55 to 3.65 vs. 3.5 to 3.6, according to Seysses. "Accusations of overripeness in 2009 are highly simplistic," he pointed out. "The wines are not porty like the 1990s. They have the acid structure to age, and to go the distance."

My tasting at Dujac was one of the highlights of the two weeks I spent in Burgundy in late November/early December 2011. I tasted through all the 2010s in barrel and 2009s in bottle. The domaine's 2009s are among the wines of the vintage.

This is a beautiful set of wines from Dujac. The harvest started on September 10 and ended on the 17. Jeremy Seysses told me he wanted to pick on the early side in order to preserve freshness. In a similar vein, Seysses kept the fermentations short and gentle to avoid over-extracting. In 2008 the estate finished its conversion to fully organic farming originally started in 2001. I also tasted a handful of 2008s, which are beautiful wines that are true to type and site. Dujac fans have a lot to look forward to in these two vintages.

"We were among the first wave of harvesters in 2009, beginning on September 10," noted Jeremy Seysses, who was one of just a few winemakers who admitted to doing some acidification of the must (surely there were others as well). Grape sugars ranged from 12.7% to 13.8%. Seysses believes that the 2009s will offer great pleasure in their youth and wonders if they will ever close down in bottle. "But 2008 is the long-term vintage, similar to 1993," he added. "The '08s are tightly wound and energetic, with strong acidity and a high impression of tannins, even where the actual numbers aren't that elevated." The 2009 malos started in the spring and mostly finished in the summer; the wines were racked from barrel to barrel just after the 2010 harvest.

According to Alec Seysses, 2008 required less sorting at the family domain than either 2007 or 2006, as the incidence of rot was minimized by the low crop loads and loose clusters. "With about 107 days of hang time, the phenolic ripening was better than the sugar ripening," Seysses told me. The fact that the estate vinified with a higher percentage of stems than in the previous two vintages is a good indication that they were confident about the levels of phenolic ripeness. Potential alcohols were in the 12% to 13% range, and most wines were chaptalized about half a degree. A few of the 2008s that went through malolactic fermentation especially late were de-acidified in July or August. My early look at this vintage suggests that it has yielded some extraordinary wines here. Seysses told me that the family was gentle with extraction in 2007 (the colors are paler than the 2008s), in part due to some rot issues, but he still wishes they had waited another three days to pick. (The Sorting Table, Napa, CA) Also recommended: Morey-Saint-Denis (86).

According to Alec Seysses, 2008 required less sorting at the family domain than either 2007 or 2006, as the incidence of rot was minimized by the low crop loads and loose clusters. "With about 107 days of hang time, the phenolic ripening was better than the sugar ripening," Seysses told me. The fact that the estate vinified with a higher percentage of stems than in the previous two vintages is a good indication that they were confident about the levels of phenolic ripeness. Potential alcohols were in the 12% to 13% range, and most wines were chaptalized about half a degree. A few of the 2008s that went through malolactic fermentation especially late were de-acidified in July or August. My early look at this vintage suggests that it has yielded some extraordinary wines here. Seysses told me that the family was gentle with extraction in 2007 (the colors are paler than the 2008s), in part due to some rot issues, but he still wishes they had waited another three days to pick. (The Sorting Table, Napa, CA) Also recommended: Morey-Saint-Denis (86).

This superb estate started picking pinot on August 28 in 2007, and then did a fairly short extraction, pressing the grapes quickly after just a week of fermentation to avoid getting hard tannins. The challenge in 2007, according to Jeremy Seysses, was to get enough good tannins in the wines. Not surprisingly, Seysses's favorite 2007s tend to be those that show the best structure. Grape sugars ranged from 11.5% up to 12.5%, "according to the hierarchy of vineyards," said Seysses, who noted that potential alcohol levels were higher, as well as more regular, in 2006. Incidentally, a number of the 2006s were showing their tannins when I tasted them in November and appear to be shutting down. But this is a superb vintage at Dujac. Seysses notes that the estate's clonal material tends to ripen early, which was more of an advantage in 2006 than in 2007.

This superb estate started picking pinot on August 28 in 2007, and then did a fairly short extraction, pressing the grapes quickly after just a week of fermentation to avoid getting hard tannins. The challenge in 2007, according to Jeremy Seysses, was to get enough good tannins in the wines. Not surprisingly, Seysses's favorite 2007s tend to be those that show the best structure. Grape sugars ranged from 11.5% up to 12.5%, "according to the hierarchy of vineyards," said Seysses, who noted that potential alcohol levels were higher, as well as more regular, in 2006. Incidentally, a number of the 2006s were showing their tannins when I tasted them in November and appear to be shutting down. But this is a superb vintage at Dujac. Seysses notes that the estate's clonal material tends to ripen early, which was more of an advantage in 2006 than in 2007.

According to Jeremy Seysses, the family began the harvest on September 23rd and proceeded slowly. Ultimately, he told me, the fruit was riper than in 2004 and 2001 but less ripe than in 2005, 2002 or 1999. "Two thousand six is a reasonably ripe, stylish vintage," he said, "but with plenty of charm. The wines will age on their balance more than on their structure. And they're very harmonious: no single feature dominates." Most of the vinifications were done with about 70% whole clusters in '06, but the Chambolle-Musigny Les Gruenchers and Romanee-Saint-Vivant were vendange entier, and the Clos Saint-Denis and Clos de la Roche were made with nearly all of their stems. Seysses added that he expected the Dujac 2005s to be the domain's longest-lived wines, which, as veteran collectors of these wines must know, suggests that they will go on in bottle for decades.

According to Jeremy Seysses, the family began the harvest on September 23rd and proceeded slowly. Ultimately, he told me, the fruit was riper than in 2004 and 2001 but less ripe than in 2005, 2002 or 1999. "Two thousand six is a reasonably ripe, stylish vintage," he said, "but with plenty of charm. The wines will age on their balance more than on their structure. And they're very harmonious: no single feature dominates." Most of the vinifications were done with about 70% whole clusters in '06, but the Chambolle-Musigny Les Gruenchers and Romanee-Saint-Vivant were vendange entier, and the Clos Saint-Denis and Clos de la Roche were made with nearly all of their stems. Seysses added that he expected the Dujac 2005s to be the domain's longest-lived wines, which, as veteran collectors of these wines must know, suggests that they will go on in bottle for decades.

Even before the complicated purchase of vineyards from Domaine Thomas-Moillard, a visit here allowed the lucky taster to sample five grand crus. Add Romanee-Saint-Vivant, Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Beze, plus some more Bonnes-Mares, to the mix, and Domaine Dujac now provides one-stop shopping for those interested in the top sites of the Cote de Nuits. There are some sensational wines here in 2005. Jeremy Seysses told me the team vinified mostly whole clusters, especially for the grand crus, did slightly fewer pigeages than usual, and racked the wines early as the lees were very reductive. This was one of the more spectacular visits of my annual tour. (The Sorting Table, Napa, CA) Also recommended: Morey-Saint-Denis (86).

Even before the complicated purchase of vineyards from Domaine Thomas-Moillard, a visit here allowed the lucky taster to sample five grand crus. Add Romanee-Saint-Vivant, Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Beze, plus some more Bonnes-Mares, to the mix, and Domaine Dujac now provides one-stop shopping for those interested in the top sites of the Cote de Nuits. There are some sensational wines here in 2005. Jeremy Seysses told me the team vinified mostly whole clusters, especially for the grand crus, did slightly fewer pigeages than usual, and racked the wines early as the lees were very reductive. This was one of the more spectacular visits of my annual tour. (The Sorting Table, Napa, CA) Also recommended: Morey-Saint-Denis (86).

Jeremy Seysses describes the family estate's 2004s as "good but not great. Of course, they shouldn't even be as good as they are. "The wines, he says, are a softer version of 2001, with some of the red fruit character and charm of 1992. The domain began harvesting a bit later than some of their neighbors, picking the hailed-on parcels in Morey-Saint-Denis early and then coming back a week later for the rest. Seysses emphasized that the 2003s will not be a vintage for early drinking. But he also emphasized that the objective of the vinification in the earlier year was to get sufficient structure without extracting excessive tannins. Incidentally, Seysses admitted to having problems with reduction in recent years, and he told me the estate would not release its 2003 Bonnes-Mares "until we know that the reduction is only temporary. We haven't fertilized our vineyards for a long time, and thus in a drought year we have overly low levels of nitrogen for high alcohols, so the yeasts are stressed and produce a lot of SO2. "In fact, Jeremy went on, the estate was racking its 2005s during the week of my visit to ensure less reduction in the wines. "Now we have to be more selective in our use of the lees. We're also changing our vineyard treatments to address this problem. "If the complicated purchase of vineyards from Domaine Thomas-Moillard goes through according to plan (Domaine de Montille is another part of the buying group), the Seysses family will soon be making a large quantity of Vosne-Romanee les Malconsorts and lesser lots of Vosne-Romanee Les Beaumonts, Bonnes-Mares, Romanee-Saint-Vivant, Chambertin and Chambertin-Clos de Beze.

Thanks to the ripeness of the stems, the Seysses family vinified virtually 100% whole clusters in 2003.Little pre-fermentation maceration was done, but the team did more pigeages than usual during the early days of the fermentations, then simply kept the cap wet later on.The wines were pressed early and went into the barrel with a bit of sugar yet to be fermented.I tasted this year with Alec Seysses, and Jeremy Seysses's fiance Diana Snowden, who originally came here as an enologist.Snowden told me the 2003s were very reduced in the early going, but were much easier to taste in the fall, even those that had not yet been racked.

The Dujac team did a lot of green harvesting in 2002, according to Jeremy Seysses, holding yields to a low 32 or 33 hectoliters per hectare for the grand crus.Only the fine lees were kept in 2002, as the objective from the outset was to keep the wines on their lees, unracked, until the bottling.Jeremy Seysses describes the young 2002s as lush, leesy and sweet, but less powerful than the estate's '99s.The estate did a good bit of destemming in vintage 2001 but is now backing away from this approach (only 10% to 20% of the fruit was destemmed in 2002).The 2002s showed outstanding potential in November, and the top 2001s have turned out very well.(Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena CA Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco CA

The Dujac team did a lot of green harvesting in 2002, according to Jeremy Seysses, holding yields to a low 32 or 33 hectoliters per hectare for the grand crus.Only the fine lees were kept in 2002, as the objective from the outset was to keep the wines on their lees, unracked, until the bottling.Jeremy Seysses describes the young 2002s as lush, leesy and sweet, but less powerful than the estate's '99s.The estate did a good bit of destemming in vintage 2001 but is now backing away from this approach (only 10% to 20% of the fruit was destemmed in 2002).The 2002s showed outstanding potential in November, and the top 2001s have turned out very well.(Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena CA Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco CA

Jeremy Seysses told me that he and his father Jacques consider 2001 to have better acidity and structure than 2000, with generally less jammy fruit character (acidification was required virtually across the board in 2000). He compared the young 2001s to the estate's '95s. The grape skins were even riper in 2000," noted Seysses, "but the fruit was also a bit overripe." The Seysses purchased a destemmer for the 2000 vintage, and ultimately destemmed most of their fruit due to the low acidity of the vintage (the stems are high in potassium and would have further raised pHs). In 2001 they destemmed 30% to 40% of their fruit (although the Chambolle Gruenchers is vinified from entirely whole clusters). These days the Seysses are attempting to delay the malolactic fermentations. Jeremy noted that this was easy to do with the 2001s due to the very cold winter, which lowered the temperature in the cellar. Due to the late malos, which went on until June (and even later in some barrels), the wines had been racked for the first time just ten days or so prior to my visit.

My visit to Domaine Dujac this fall came just a few days after vineyard manager Christophe Morin was tragically killed in a motor accident on the route nationale between Gevrey-Chambertin and Dijon. Jacques Seysses, who had for years credited Morin viticultural techniques for much of his domain's success, was still in a state of shock but was good enough to keep our appointment. Seysses described 2000 as having produced a large crop of patchy quality, as ripe as the fruit of the preceding three years but with modest structure. The wines show a strong red fruit quality, he noted, adding that Morin dropped nearly two-thirds of the crop in order to cut yields to the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range. I also tasted three negociant village wines (from Gevrey, Morey and Chambolle), and particularly liked the Chambolle, which was more typical of its village than the Dujac bottling, which is distinctly a Morey-side version of Chambolle.

My visit to Domaine Dujac this fall came just a few days after vineyard manager Christophe Morin was tragically killed in a motor accident on the route nationale between Gevrey-Chambertin and Dijon. Jacques Seysses, who had for years credited Morin viticultural techniques for much of his domain's success, was still in a state of shock but was good enough to keep our appointment. Seysses described 2000 as having produced a large crop of patchy quality, as ripe as the fruit of the preceding three years but with modest structure. The wines show a strong red fruit quality, he noted, adding that Morin dropped nearly two-thirds of the crop in order to cut yields to the 40 to 45 hectoliters-per-hectare range. I also tasted three negociant village wines (from Gevrey, Morey and Chambolle), and particularly liked the Chambolle, which was more typical of its village than the Dujac bottling, which is distinctly a Morey-side version of Chambolle.

Literally days before the 1999 harvest began, in part due to the very low acidity of the fruit, Jacques Seysses purchased a destemmer that does not crush the grapes. "The acidity would have been too low if the stems had been included," Seysses explained. "It miraculous to have this kind of quality with such a high yield," added Seysses. "The fruit was even riper and more concentrated than in 1990; we added more sugar in 1990. But then there have also been a lot of improvements in viticulture-for example, we use green cover and no longer use herbicides." Yields averaged about 46 hectoliters per hectare in 1999, and just 30 in 1998, according to Seysses. "The '98s are more structured and less charming wines than the '97s; we may even eventually drink the '96s before the '98s," Seysses told me in November. "The '98s are preferred by the younger generation here at the estate, but my wife and I like the '97s better." Seysses was in the middle of racking his '99s for the second time in mid-November, so a few cuvees were tricky to taste.

The past three vintages have brought the highest grape sugars to date at this domain, with 1998 just a hair behind 1997 and 1999, according to vineyard manager Christophe Morin. "Making good wines in 1998 required good viticulture and good vinification," noted Morin. "We needed to remove the burnt grapes with a separate pass through the vines around September 10." "Then we destemmed certain less-ripe parcels to avoid getting a green taste in the wines." Because the grapes came in cool, the domain was able to do its normal four or five days of cold maceration prior to the onset of the fermentations. The Dujac '98s are more powerful and voluminous wines than the '97s, noted Morin, adding that they are a bit rounder and more concentrated than the estate's '96s. My tasting notes on the Dujac '97s appeared in Issue 83.

Jacques Seysses, who began making Burgundy in 1968, ranks 1997 in the same exalted class as '69, '78 and '95. "These are my four best vintages, and they were all nice wines from the beginning," he notes. "The '97s will definitely be wines for the Jacques Seysses Retirement Plan," he notes. "Some of these wines are close to my ideal for pinot noir." Seysses, who looks for complexity, balance and length more than power, prefers softer tannins. 1997, says Seysses, benefitted from a rare concentration of thoroughly ripe tannins thanks to very low yields. (In contrast, says Seysses, the structure and acidity of '96 was somewhat diluted by the high crop level that year.) Seysses had the highest grape sugars yet at the domain in '97: in the 12.7% to 13.6% range. He picked the clonal selection vines early, then stopped for a full week before starting his massale vines, which ripen later. The '97s were bottled without fining or filtration in November and December.