Wine Advisor
Domaine Dujac, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru 2008
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2008 Clos de la Roche is particularly refined in this vintage. The wine literally floats on the palate with weightless elegance in its intensely perfumed fruit. Crushed flowers and red berries linger on the silky, impossibly fine finish. This is a fabulous effort from Dujac.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Good medium red. Knockout nose combines dark raspberry, licorice and a peppery complexity. Fatter, sweeter and richer than the Clos Saint-Denis, with a positive peppery/herbal component from the vinification with the stems contributing to the wine's impression of energy. Wonderfully intense and sharply delineated. Finishes very long, with palate-staining density, firm tannins and a terrific combination of breadth and energy.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
(sulfited) Bright, dark red. Sexy wild red fruits, smoked meat, menthol and brown spices on the nose. Densely packed, sweet and intense, with superb mouth coverage to its complex flavors of small wild red fruits, minerals, spices and earth. This lightly saline, soil-driven wine boasts terrific energy and length, with its tannins very much in the background today. From a crop level of just 22 hectoliters per hectare, according to Alec Seysses.
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2008 Clos de la Roche is particularly refined in this vintage. The wine literally floats on the palate with weightless elegance in its intensely perfumed fruit. Crushed flowers and red berries linger on the silky, impossibly fine finish. This is a fabulous effort from Dujac. Anticipated maturity: 2018-2033. This is a beautiful set of wines from Dujac. The harvest started on September 10 and ended on the 17th. Jeremy Seysses told me he wanted to pick on the early side in order to preserve freshness. In a similar vein, Seysses kept the fermentations short and gentle to avoid over-extracting. I also tasted a handful of 2008s, which are beautiful wines that are true to type and site. In 2008 the estate finished its conversion to fully organic farming originally started in 2001. Dujac fans have a lot to look forward to in these two vintages. Importers: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (415) 491-4724; Martin Scott Wines, Little Neck, NY; tel. (516) 327-0808; Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 642-5500
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted out of barrel at the Domaine. The Clos de la Roche has a very expressive bouquet despite the slight reduction. You can feel the minerality here, some flinty notes, red fruits and a touch of hazelnut. The palate is silky smooth on the entry with blackcurrant, blueberry and orange zest. Cashmere tannins towards the sensuous finish with superb length. Wonderful. Drink now-2025. Tasted November 2009.
Reviewed by: David Schildknecht
The Dujac 2008 Clos de la Roche displays a grip, oily bitter-sweetness, and density to match its pungent smokiness and resinous as well as ripe dark berry aromas. There is a distinctly medicinal aura here and I’m ready to take the medicine, which finishes with truly vibratory intensity of herbs, berries, and smoky as well as crushed stone mineral essences. This plush, finely-structure, remarkably and intensely interactive Pinot is probably truly good for you; I’m almost certain it’s good for 12-15 years in your cellar. The Dujac 2008s were not racked until last December, and bottling took place January through March. “The malic acid numbers were high-ish, but not significantly higher than in, say, 2006 or 2001,” says Jeremy Seysses in an effort to explain what he admitted were “for us, excessively late malos. I have a feeling it was a lack of nutrients that were wash out,” he continues, since, after all, “it rained a lot in 2008” with, he adds, “poor fruit set proving to be the vintage’s saving grace. I think we would actually have had less to harvest (i.e. worth keeping) if we had had a better fruit set. There was rot, but can you find it in any of the wines? That’s a credit to how far Burgundy has come along in terms of sorting” (which Dujac does exclusively in the vineyard, not on sorting tables – the name of their U.S. importer ironically notwithstanding). “I didn’t love my lack of options in 2007,” says Seysses of the preceding season, “so we picked early – earlier even than in 2003.” In vinification “we decided not to force too much, and just to keep it charming,” which is exactly how I thought the wines turned out. “At Domaine Dujac, we’re never been that attached to deep color, so we’re quite tolerant (in that regard), and the least thing we wanted to do was make hard wines. I de-stemmed more (than usual, or than in 2008). The fruit felt fragile, so in barrel I kept the wines under a bit more free sulfur than usual, which reinforced their lightness.” Seysses opines that 2007 was not a year in which old selections displayed their overall superiority to clones, because “if yo(‘re Pinots) were riper earlier, you were ripe while it was raining,” whereas in 2008 you could scarcely get too much ripeness. Importer: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (415) 491-4724
About the Producer
Domaine Dujac is managed by the Seysses family. It was founded in 1967 by Jacque Seyesses. At the beginning, Château Dujac had only 4.5 hectares of vineyards in Morey-Saint-Denis. The vineyards were expanded with the purchase of Echezeaux, Bonnes MaresChambertin, Romanee St Vivant and Vosene-Romanee. The estate also owns 1.95 hectares of vineyards in the Clos de la Roche, where the vines are on average 45 to 50 years old. The estate also has 1.45 hectares of vineyards in Clos Saint-Denis, with vines of an average age of 45 to 50 years. In 2005, Château Dujac, together with Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet, acquired Domaine Charles Thomas, acquiring Charles Thomas' shares in the vineyards of Chambertin, Vosne- Romanee and other vineyards. However, the estate sold some of its vineyards after the purchase in order to finance the purchase. However, this acquisition allowed the estate to expand to around 15.5 hectares. Under Jacques' leadership, Château Dujac has developed very well. The grapes were pressed whole and the must was fermented in new oak barrels, and in 1999, when Jacques handed over the running of the estate to his son, the way the estate was made changed dramatically: the grapes were sometimes destemmed and the barrels used for fermentation were probably only 25% new oak. However, the estate's Grand Cru wines are still matured in new oak barrels, while the Grand Cru wines are matured in 60% to 80% new oak barrels. Bottling usually takes place in February or March of the following year. The estate produces around 4,650 bottles/hectare of wine.
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