TN's: A bunch of Dujac with a few Champagnes and White Burgs

WINE TALK
1

Got together with eight others at my favorite dining establishment - Marea - for dinner with the theme of 1990 and older Dujac wines. A few felt compelled to bring some whites and I as always felt compelled to bring some champagne (as did a couple of others).

’69 Bollinger RD - disgorged in 1981 - not sure what this had more of - salty or over the hill flavors - DOA

’69 Dom Perignon - I’ve drunk through most of this particular case and the bottles have ranged from Excellent plus to Staggering plus. This bottle was at the low end of the scale. Very vibrant effervescence with mature flavors. Would have like a bit more coffee and white chocolate aromas to it as I love those signatures that DP usually displays. Evolved over the course of the evening but it was lacking that extra element to bring it to the next level. Excellent plus

’02 Dujac MSD Monts Luisants - I wine I don’t think I’ve ever had before from any vintage. Served blind it was clearly white burgundy. Vintages guesses ranged from 2004 to late 90’s. Was a bit straightforward to me, but clearly a well made and solid wine. Very good

’02 Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet - the only white burgundy producer I drink with regularity is Leflaive (but that still is not very often) and this bottle was another reason why. Tropical flavors with plenty of minerality and racy acidity so that its not at blowsy or clumsy in the least. Delicious without food, but even better with two (thanks JK) semolina dusted soft shell crabs(my firsts of the season). Excellent plus

’95 Jadot Montrachet Mag - this I believe was a case of poor storage not premox. But this was not what it should have been. Not brown, but dark golden colored, much darker than it should have been. Little signs of oxidation on the nose, but not giving much up on either the nose or the palate. Seemed stripped. Fair

’95 Coche-Dury Meursault Rougeots - much heavier and thicker than the previous wines but balanced out by acidity. A touch too heavy on the oak for me, but I still liked it a lot. Excellent

On to the reds -

’76 Dujac Gevery-Chambertin Aux Combottes - a recent “lays potato chip” wine for me with it being my third bottle in about as many weeks. A touch musty on the nose, at first I thought it might have been very slightly corked, but it wasn’t. Good fruit underneath, this bottle was not as good as the previous two recent examples I’ve had of it. Pancaked by the wine served along side of it Excellent minus

’90 Dujac Gevrey-Chambertin Aux Combettes - at one of last summer’s Angry Open’s one of the attendees brought this wine. Served along with a couple of dozen others, it was solid but didn’t stand out. That is until the following late afternoon when I drank through about a dozen or so left over bottles that still had about a quarter to a third of the wine left. It was smoking. Based on that info, this bottle was opened and double decanted about 12 hours in advance. And once again last night it was smoking. Great aromatics, brilliant ruby red color, pure sweet fruit and excellent acidity. Excellent plus

’88 Dujac Clos de la Roche - I was expecting a hard some what austere wine. Instead, this was fragrant and charming. Ripe cherry fruit with good texture. not the most complex wine and it didn’t grow in the glass over the course of the evening. Excelllent minus

’85 Dujac Clos de la Roche while the '95 Jadot was not properly stored this bottle made it seem like it had been buried in a glacier. I have never seen a bottle of wine at this age be so lightly and thin colored. Usually poor storage turns bottles like this brown. Not this one. If it was served blind I would have guessed it were 100 years old. One whiff and there was no way I was tasting it. DOA

’83 Dujac Clos de la Roche showed some of the negative '83 characteristics. Not overwhelming but definite mustiness detracted from its drinking pleasure. If it had been clean it would have been a very nice wine. Good plus

’89 Dujac Clos St Denis - While I don’t really take notes, I usually have cheat sheet where I write down all of the wines and jot down a word or two next to them so it triggers my memory. Unfortunately, I left my sheet at the restaurant and I can’t remember specifics about this wine. That probably means it was a solid wine that didn’t soar to great heights nor have any real flaws to it.

’85 Dujac Clos St Denis - this was an enigma to me. Very youthful color and shut down. The label was totally missing but the capsule and cork were correct. Quality burgundy and it did open up in the glass. If this was the wine, it was either stored too well or just a strange bottle. I’ve had stupendous bottles of this in the past. Very good plus

’76 Dujac Clos St Denis Mag This was a positive surprise. Clearly Dujac was an over achiever in the vintage. Plenty of fruit evident without any austerity and harshness that can be found in the vintage. I’ve had good bottles of this before, but maybe the mag helped for this was the best example of the wine that I’ve had. About as elegant as you can get for the vintage. Excellent

The next level - I usually prefer my wines with a bit more than twenty years of age, but this flight was fantastic

’90 Dujac Clos la Roche

’90 Dujac Clos St Denis

’90 Dujac Bonnes Mares

I’ll comment on these as a whole. The best fruit of all the wines with also the most complexity. I found the first two wines to smell remarkably similar with a slightly more autumnal profile on the palate for the Clos la Roche. The Bonnes Mares had a more perfumed character on the nose and slightly more elegant and feminine profile overall. The finished on the three wines were long, long and long.
Staggering, Staggering Staggering

With cheese we went back to… surprise !! Champagne.

NV Selosse Rose - while his '90 BdB is off the charts and personally he’s a charming and fun person, I fail to see why he garners the cult status that he has. A little too sweet and a little too oxidized profile for me. Good minus

’90 Dom Perignon Mag - opened early in the evening this was a classic DP - rich, round and creamy. I love mags for just about all wines, but they really bring a smile to my face when there’s champagne in them. Excellent plus

Great job by Marea all around. Food, service and especially wine service. We went through over 200 glasses and everything was seamless.

Thanks to all the attendees for bringing great wines and contributing overall to a great evening.

2

Pretty sick lineup Ray. Although some here disagree, all the 1990 Dujac GCs I’ve tasted have been outstanding wines, real show stoppers. The BM that I had back in December I thought could last another 20 years easily.

3

Chris,

Yea, I’m a fan of them too.

Btw - I should have noted that there were no signs of charred oak on the bottle of '90 Clos la Roche last night.

4

Thanks for the notes Ray…sounds like it was a good night.
How does Marea handle corkage?

5

Bill,

I’m not sure

blush blush

6

Ray,

I know that you have stated that “generally” you aren’t a fan of Selosse. Is it that they are so oxidative in style? I think that is what I liked most about the wines from him that I have had…granted not that many, but I do like them very much. Are they worth the cult-status coin? Dunno.

Knowing this, what others don’t you like that I might find enjoyable at a lower price point?

7

I’ve had Selosse only once, and was not impressed, not at all, particularly for the price.

8

Pretty surprised you liked this. I find MSD Blanc to be a waste of good land for more Pinot vines.

[rofl.gif] And you would know!

9

Bill,

It’s partly the oxidative style but also I find significant bottle variation in some of his wines.

I drank a bottle of 02 Ambonnay Rouge in Selosse’s cellar. He gave a couple of us a bottle to bring back. Drank it a couple of weeks later and if I couldn’t believe how different the second bottle was from the first.

10

I’m not Ray but I have mixed feelings about Selosse as well. I have found his biggest flaw is inconsistency, even within the same batch of say Substance, one bottle will be more oxidized then another, one will be pretty brilliant and then the next, mediocre. I have actually had a great bottle of Rose and then a mediocre bottle that sounds a lot like the bottle Ray had.

The wine that I have had only once but absolutely adored was the VO, a zero dosage wine. Really was very impressive with lots of minerality and great drive. I thought Raveneau with bubbles. Now will my next bottle be as good? I don’t know but I am up for trying another one because it was so good the first time. That is what happens to those who fall in love with Selosse it seems, they have a couple amazing bottles and deal with the so so bottles to find another great bottle. Sounds like Burgundy drinkers now that I read what I wrote

I guess his wines are generally the opposite of something like Krug MV which is the model of consistency but lacks the small producer charm.


Disclosure: I sell every wine I just talked about.

11

Thanks Chris, all of that makes perfect sense.

12

Agreed, the '90s back in December at Braeburn were fantastic. As for the Selosse Rose, I have to say I’ve had a few and there has been some bottle variation.

13

Gosh I wasn’t even talking about the Braeburn dinner, I am lucky SOB…

14

Not something that I would go out and buy but it was a quality wine.

15

Rub it in why dontcha… [snort.gif]

16

The overall quality across different vintages and vineyards is what impressed me the most about this tasting. Just about very bottle on the table could have been the centerpiece of a dinner. My personal favorites of the reds were the '90 Combottes in that it drank right up there with the Grand Crus and the '90 Bonnes Mares which was just flat-out gorgeous. I am usually not a big fan of the '90 vintage but this proved me wrong.

The '02 Lefalive Chevalier showed very youthfully and has a long way to go. The '95 Coche Rougeouts really outperfomed as well was full of fruit and vitality.

Many thanks to Ray for organizing and for everyone bringing such great wines.

17

Combottes is, of course, surrounded by grands crus, and I’ve always found Dujac’s and several others to perform at grand cru level. In fact, I think Jeremy or his mother told me a few years back that they now price the Combottes the same as their Charmes-Chambertin.

Clive Coates says that there is a depression that makes Combottes of less than grand cru quality, but I don’t find that in the wines, other than a particular portion on sandy soil that belongs to a different producer. More convincing to me are two other explanations that have been offered:

  1. In order to be a Chambertin grand cru, the vineyard had to touch either Chambertin or Chambertin-Clos-de-Bèze; or

  2. At the time of the classification, no owner of Combottes was in Gevrey, so the Gevrey producers had no incentive to see Combottes be a grand cru.

An additional angle on #2 above is that apparently the producers in Gevrey had wanted to include Morey-Saint-Denis in the Gevrey-Chambertin appellation (which made sense in a way because before the INAO, much of the wine of Morey had sold under the label of Gevrey-Chambertin or its grands crus), but the producers in Morey chose to remain separate.

18

Thanks for the notes Ray. Claude, always interesting to get a lesson on burgundy.

Michel/Chris, we should do a dujac dinner once a year but I don’t think the last one was in December. I think it was Jan. or Feb.

19

But was it good? Longetivity and quality are two different things.

20

regarding Selosse. Has two bad bottles of the rose, because I don’t like the style, but had Selosse probably a dozen times, various bottlings and have loved every single one. VO is the best followed by Substance for me. The Exquise is pretty fun too.