2007 Morey-Saint-Denis Village

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.