2011 Domaine Dujac, Chambolle-Musigny AOC, Cote de Nuits, Red Burgundy, France.
Already past its peak drinking window, the basic Chambolle-Musigny is still a little beauty with a distinctive personality and silky mouth feel, it shows a unique Alpine herbal/minty character to go with a smooth palate of black cherry, red berry and plum fruits along with a mineral and earthy array of flavors and accents, making for an easy to love wine. In Dujac’s lineup, and in particular the entry level village wines, I have usually preferred the basic Morey-St.-Denis, but this Chambolle is always a chaser and offers a ton of quality for the price. The 2011 vintage has turned out to be a really pleasing vintage for red Burgundies and I was excited to try this one, especially as I don’t get the chance to drink many Dujac wines these days, and it did not disappoint, though I dream about their Clos de la Roche and Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru bottlings, which are some of my favorite of all time wines. Dujac and the Seysses family have always been a fan of whole cluster fermentation and plenty of stem inclusion, and that shows in their wines, with this wine looking to have benefited from this practice in at least a small way with the exotic Amaro like herbal note and the expressive nature of this wine that adds a spicy side as it opens up. Seysses believes was that the mature stems actually reduced the amount of hard tannins in the resulting wine, a novel theory that has been mostly proved correct with his efforts, adding that he wants to avoid bruising the grapes during the de-stemming process, again to allow the grapes to fully shine.
Domaine Dujac is a legendary winery, run by the Seysses family and was originally established in 1968 by founder, Jacques Seysses, who is still involved here, though sons, Jeremy and Alec, and Jeremy’s wife Diana (Snowden) have run the domaine for many years now, producing some of the regions most coveted wines. These days, Jeremy is doing the winemaking and marketing with Diana Snowden, of Napa Valley, who’s family has a winery focused on high end Cabernet Sauvignon, and a U. C. Davis graduate in enology, has taken over cellar management here, with Alec handling the day to day operation and administration of this well loved domaine. Dujac has a stellar collection of vines in prime spots, including in Bonnes Mares Grand Cru, Chambolle Musigny Les Gruenchers 1er Cru, Charmes Chambertin Grand Cru, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru, Clos Saint Denis Grand Cru, Echezeaux Grand Cru, Gevery-Chambertin aux Combottes 1er Cru, Gevery-Chambertin aux Combottes 1er Cru, Morey St. Denis Blanc, Morey St. Denis Monts Luisants 1er Cru Blanc, Morey St. Denis 1er Cru Rouge, Vosne Romanee Les Beaux Monts1 er Cru, and last but not least Vosne Romanee aux Malconsorts 1 er Cru! My favorites, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru and Clos St. Denis Grand Cru were the first two vineyard parcels that Jacques Seysses purchased in 1968 and they remain standard bearers of wine made from these vineyards. These are superstar Pinots and I am always grateful for the chance to try any of Dujac’s wines, so a big thank you to Alex Lallos, my friend, who shared his personal, well stored and cellared, Chambolle with me!
($70-110 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive