2017 Echézeaux Grand Cru

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.