Dujacfest II

Café Centro
Tasted Thursday, March 3, 2011 by Keith Levenberg with 780 views

Flight 1 (2 Notes)

  • 2002 Pierre Péters Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Speciale Blanc de Blancs Les Chetillons

    France, Champagne, Champagne Grand Cru

    A remarkably deep toned, golden complexion -- more developed than I might have expected given the brighter profile of the 1996 recently, so it's nice and generous although perhaps leaving a question mark as to how fast this one will be to mature relative to other vintages of the Cuvée Spéciale.

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  • 2003 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet 89 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

    Smells fresh and chalky, tastes very tropical (as you might imagine from the vintage), with a cooling spearmint thing going on as well. It certainly has a plump fleshiness to it and there's not much in the way of structure or definition, nothing to constrain the material or add any kind of tension. That said, it still shows some sophistication from a textural point of view. This isn't just slick fruit here, there is something adding a sheen of laciness to the mouthfeel that's unusual in a white wine because it has the tactile effect of extremely refined tannins in a red. Still, this is a fairly straightforward wine; what you see on the first sip is pretty much what you get no matter how much you come back to it.

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Flight 2 (5 Notes)

  • 2002 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

    Not one to open now. Smells sweet and briary with a bit of maple syrup and cola, certainly shows the barrel influence. On the palate it's got a ton of fruit intensity, almost into the red zone in terms of concentration, which is also still spackled with its oak. This will need a long time to mellow and integrate.

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  • 2000 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin 93 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

    I have had this wine a few times before but it has never shown as well as it's showing now. Aromatically, it starts with some of the sweet sumptuousness of the 2002 and adds a mineral dimension. On the palate, it's finessed and lacey and past the gloss of primary fruit. The material is augmented by a vivid minerality, like it's leeched some metallic rock. So much earthier than I've ever experienced this, really showing its terrain. Could be nearing its prime drinking zone though certainly in no danger of fading.

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  • 1999 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin 92 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

    I have a very different impression of this wine than I did last year; not sure whether that reflects the performance of the wine or the contrast with its flightmates. The remarkable thing about this wine today was that it actually showed less primary and more accessible than the 1993. It's not showing the over-the-top fruit richness of the 2002; the material is both less dense and better integrated, and it's showing some tertiary character absent from both the '02 and the '93, the same metal-ore minerality as the 2000 as well as something smoky. It's not quite as open-knit as the 2000, but it doesn't convey a sense of unreadiness, either.

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  • 1995 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin Flawed

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

    Corked.

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  • 1993 Domaine Dujac Charmes-Chambertin

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru

    I had totally forgot tasting this three and a half years ago, and my notes on that bottle read, "If it continues aging at this pace it will probably be mature... well, never," and that is certainly still the case. Had we not known the vintages I would have pegged this as one of the younger bottles of the flight as it showed only mildly more advanced than the 2002, and certainly substantially less developed than the 1999 and 2000. In fact, it is almost all primary fruit and still fairly monolithic and impenetrable even though it doesn't have the edginess of many a '93. It might be starting to reveal some more savory/meaty kind of flavors, but it's so subtle I might just be imagining things; this is really still about the fruit.

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Flight 3 (1 Note)

  • 1994 Domaine Dujac Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Aux Combottes 89 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru

    This is certainly a vintage that gets no respect, but you wouldn't know it from the performance of this bottle. There is certainly nothing frail about this, and while the acidity may be ever-so-slightly on the shrill side, there is real personality to this, with an evolved gamey scent, savory/brothy flavors, and still plenty of ripe fruit.

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Flight 4 (3 Notes)

  • 1988 Domaine Dujac Echezeaux 95 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Echezeaux Grand Cru

    Such an unmistakeable change of key as we migrate away from Gevrey, it was almost jarring, but in a good way as this is an outstanding bottle of Echezeaux. The aromas are totally past the fruit stage and is almost showing like a hybrid combining the spicey scents of Vosne-Romanee with an earthier, rock quarry minerality that I'm normally more likely to find in Grands Echezeaux than just-plain Ech. Totally in its prime drinking zone and loaded with detail.

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  • 1988 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche Flawed

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru

    Corked.

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  • 1983 Domaine Dujac Clos de la Roche Flawed

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos de la Roche Grand Cru

    Corked.

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Flight 5 (2 Notes)

  • 1998 Domaine Dujac Clos Saint-Denis 90 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru

    I have four prior notes on this wine each one bemoaning its still-primary character and mostly kicking myself for opening it too soon. This almost would have made a fifth, except I was able to keep it in my glass for awhile and came back to it after the dessert wines. With the palate recalibration from those ultra-sweet wines, the sweet primary fruit on this one receded enough to get a vivid glimpse of the layers underneath, which includes a gorgeous bed of stony minerality and a refined tannic structure.

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  • 1990 Domaine Dujac Clos Saint-Denis 94 Points

    France, Burgundy, Côte de Nuits, Clos Saint-Denis Grand Cru

    A beauty, but not quite the knockout of the '90 Clos de la Roche at our Dujac dinner last year. This is a finesse wine, very integrated except for an acidic spine which is still fairly firm and not really a wine you can pluck individual elements out of, but if you want to go by Eric Asimov's binary system this is certainly on the "savory" side as it's positively succulent and already past the fruit stage.

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Flight 6 (2 Notes)

  • 1999 Château Pajzos Tokaji Aszú 5 Puttonyos 97 Points

    Hungary, Tokaji

    Surprisingly consistent with my last tasting of this wine about five years ago. I had wanted to check back in on this for awhile to see if it was going to retain its fruit or start to turn brown and listless in the fashion of many of the icky Commie-era Tokajis. As it happens, not only has it retained its freshness, but if anything the fruit is even more vivid now than it was then. Stick your nose in the glass and you are greeted with this huge perfume of apricots that goes up to 11, and the interesting thing about it is that it's not jammy or stewed apricots as you might expect from a golden, botrytized dessert wine, but fresh apricots, still plump and juicy except exceedingly, sumptuously, sweet.

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  • 1995 Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru 96 Points

    France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Quarts de Chaume Grand Cru

    Delicious stuff. As vivid a rendering of sweet apples as the Tokaji was of apricots - actually made them an interesting companion pair. This was also very interesting because as deep as these wines are on release, I would never have guessed they could retain so much freshness and brightness with 10+ years of age on them, but this is still deliciously fresh and vibrant, almost as if it had a twist of lemon in it.

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