2006 Bonnes-Mares Grand Cru

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.