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Wine Description
The Story
Unlike most Burgundian estates, whether they have been bottling for a number of decades or only embarked on this path recently, the Domaine Dujac is a recent creation. It dates from 1968. Jacques Seysses, the founder, is in his early 70s, and has now taken a back seat in favour of his sons Jeremy and Alec and Jeremy's wife Diana, a trained wine chemist (oenologue). They have been working as a trio now for a few vintages. Have things changed? Should we expect more radical differences in the wines to come compared with the Dujacs of old? I went up to Morey-Saint-Denis to find out.
The Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru lies between the village of Morey-Saint-Denis to the south and
Gevrey-Chambertin to the north, where the slope is very steep (13%). The plot varies in altitude from 284 to 309 meters. The lieu-dit faces east-southeast.
The soil changes from east to west. The reddish-brown soil in the eastern part is 40 to 50 cm thick, with some angular-to-rounded limestone fragments. Upslope, in the western part of this Grand Cru plot, the soil is richer in fine angular limestone gravel.
Two different substrata underlie the Clos Saint-Denis. To the east, the substratum is a fine light-colored limestone, occasionally containing flint-like chert nodules (chailles). This Premeaux limestone, crops out in beds tens of centimeters thick. To the west, where the slope is steeper, a thin layer of Comblanchien limestone scree in the form of fine angular gravel partly covers the slope.
Vintage 1998
1998 VINTAGE in Burgundy
The 1998 vintage was born under good auspices and has real potential. In spite of the occasional capricious weather conditions, the harvest has given us wines full of promise ? some fruity and seductive, others meaty and more structured.
After brief cold spells in January and February, the vines enjoyed temperatures above the seasonal average in March. This mild weather was interrupted by cold and rainy conditions in early spring. More clement weather returned in May and got growth off to a good start though, later, a slight drop in temperature slowed down the end of the flowering period. Odium broke out but did only local damage and overall the health of the vines remained satisfactory. The summer was on the whole hot and dry. Some limited hail damage occurred. Whilst scorching temperatures in August led to rapid colouring-up (vérasion) and a promising start to maturation. Rain in September was fortunately concentrated at the beginning and end of the month. By and large, harvesting took place in excellent conditions under sunny skies.
As always, the quest for optimum maturity was the key factor in deciding when harvesting should begin. The composition of the grapes was good nut the presence of botrytis gave rise in many cases to a need for sorting ? more or less rigorously according to situation. On the whole, average sugar content and acidity levels were both satisfactory. The ?ban de vendanges? was lifted the 10th of September confirming a somewhat precocious year.
At Domaine Latour, we began the harvest on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd and selected only those vineyards with more than 12° of natural sugar content. The grapes maturity appeared to depend on the age of the vines, the older vines with stronger roots were the most resistant to the drought and therefore in the best condition.
During the period of good weather, the grape juice was re-concentrated. Over 80 percent of our crop was brought in between Monday 21st and Saturday 26th in perfect harvesting conditions. Such was the urgency to harvest before the rains returned, that all available personnel at Maison Latour were mobilised in addition to the harvesters, for the first time in twenty years.
We were able to finish harvesting on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd October, just before the weather pattern changed again. The careful selection of fruit in the vineyards and on selection tables at our winery ensured that only the very best fruit in the best possible condition went into the vat.
The red grapes that were harvested before the rains came, have good concentration and especially good colour. They have a firm tannic structure that will enable the wines to age gracefully, and the acidity is balanced, but not as high as in 1996. All of the fermentation?s this year were rapid which has helped to soften the wines, and retain that brilliant Pinot Noir colour.
The white 1998s from Domaine Latour are great. Our Corton Charlemagne was picked before the rains came, under fantastic conditions, with sugar levels of between 12.5° and 12.8°. It will surely be a great wine that will benefit from some cellaring. A small crop was harvested from Chevaliers Montrachet Les Demoiselles due to damage caused by the late April frosts, these grapes were of great quality and in a perfect state of physiological maturity.
To sum up the 1998 vintage; the white wines are expressive and pleasing, notable for their elegance and agreeable acidity. For the reds the colour is good and they have a balanced structure and well developed fruit underpinned by harmonious tannins, which bode well for their future.