Domaine Dujac Chambertin Grand Cru 2012

99 VMVinous, Antonio Galloni, 01-04-2015

Every bit as moving as it was last year, the 2012 Chambertin will leave readers lucky enough to taste it weak at the knees. Unfortunately, very few people will ever taste the Dujac Chambertin, as the estate has decided to pull the wine from commercial release given the tiny production, even by Burgundy standards. With time in the glass a bevy of sweet rose petal, smoke, licorice, red cherry and plum notes flesh out, but it is the wine's magical balance that is most remarkable of all. Beg, borrow or steal. That's all I can say.

Drink 2027 to 2052

95-97 WAWine Advocate, Neal Martin, 30-12-2013

There are two barrels of the 2012 Chambertin Grand Cru this year. The nose is broody at first, gradually unfurling to reveal lovely blackberry, forest floor and sea cave scents that are beautifully defined. It gains energy as it opens up. The palate is firm in the mouth. It is quite structured with admirable depth, yet it is an introspective Chambertin that is long and intense, yet very linear in the barrel, very serious and cerebral. This will be a long-term Chambertin. Tasting in the cellars of Domaine Dujac in Morey Saint Denis is always an educational, enlightening experience, granting you a useful picture of how some of the top vineyards performed in the Cote de Nuits during a given year. Alec Seysses was on hand to guide me around his particularly cold cellar, one of those occasions when my warm hands might be bad for pastry, but ideal for warming glasses. “It was the fourth poor year in a row in terms of quantity,” he explained, showing me the concrete eggs now employed at the domaine, a less common sight here in Burgundy compared to Bordeaux. “although in 2012 we had a regular crop of the village crus and the younger vines did well. We averaged around 20 hectoliters per hectare. Everything was racked in early September but there is some reduction from the cold cellar. The softness of the tannins strikes me as a character of the vintage. It is more a dark fruit vintage than a red fruit vintage. Sugars were between 12.5 and 13%, with a few 13.3% here and there. I find the wines similar to 2010, but the 2012 is a little more charming because the tannins are not quite as strong.” Tasting through the complete range of wines from the small batch of negociant wines under “Dujac Fils et Pere” to the clutch of grand crus, it was clear that propitious terroirs that influenced the wines greatly. The village crus were mostly commendable in their own right, but the real excitement begins as you broach the premier crus, where the barrel samples achieve high degrees of complexity and nuance. Like many of the top growers, I was pleased to see individual terroirs articulated with great clarity in 2012, perhaps more so than the 2011s. These barrel samples seemed to contain so much energy: tightly coiled springs of fermented grape juice, brimming with tension and freshness that Jeremy and Alec will endeavor to capture once in bottle. I have little doubt that they will succeed.