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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 1996
1996 VINTAGE in Burgundy
Maturity levels were in general high following a long hot summer. The wines from the famous Pinot Noir have an intense ruby red colour with lush red fruit aromas. They are wines that are comparable with the outstanding 88s and 89s. The whites are just as outstanding full-bodied with elegant vibrant Chardonnay fruit and sweet white flower and grilled nut aromas. These are wines that have the potential to age magnificently.
Each harvest we hope for three things, favorable weather conditions, healthy grape clusters and high sugar levels. The 1996 harvest provided all of these. April was particularly sunny and brought about an early bud burst (18th of April). Following this we had what can be described as a flash flowering which leads to good pollination, creating high yields.
Arean had low rainfall levels, a sturdy breeze (which kept rot to a minimum) and a long ripening period. These factors created high sugar levels and good acidity within the grapes. Cloud cover in August, combined with the coldest September on record meant that the sugar levels were exceptionally high and so was the acidity: 12% potential alcohol with 5.5g of acidity for Corton Reds and 13%-14% potential alcohol with 6g of acidity for Corton Charlemagne.
As a result, most are very pleased with the 1996 vintage. The reds have an intense color, good tannin structure and concentrated Pinot Noir flavor. The white wines are also impressive, containing plenty of rich fruit character, a crisp acidity and are already showing an attractive bouquet.