Burgundy 2019: Domaine Dujac wines rated and reviewed

Domaine Dujac is indisputably at the top of its game.

Since being founded by Jacques Seysses and his father Louis Seysses in 1967, it has gone from strength to strength as it has grown.

Today the holdings total more than 15 hectares, and while the minute production of Chambertin and Romanée-St-Vivant may command the highest prices, the heart of the domaine is in Morey-St-Denis where they are based.

Morey is where more than half of their vineyards are located, including nearly two hectares of Clos de la Roche and 1.29 hectares of Clos Saint-Denis. Today, Domaine Dujac is run by Jacques’ two sons Jeremy and Alec, along with Jeremy’s wife Diana (née Snowden) and their brother Paul.

Full Burgundy 2019 en primeur report

Individual appellation overviews for:

Côte de Beaune, Côte Chalonnaise, Côte de Nuits & Mâconnais

Individual commune overviews for:

Gevrey-Chambertin, Morey-St-Denis, Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée & Nuits-St-Georges, Pommard & Volnay, Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet & Santenay

According to Alec Seysses, 2019 was a medium-size crop, noting that it was larger than the crop in 2020 but smaller than those from 2016 – 2018.

It was also more homogeneous than 2020 due to water stress this later year. A difficult flowering was only one of the reasons limiting crop size.

Seysses feels in general that the slightly larger yields in recent years help to balance the influence of rising temperatures and global warming. ‘Under-ripeness is no longer the issue in Burgundy; over-ripeness is the thing you have to be careful of,’ he says.

Regarding the yields, he adds, ‘it used to be six to eight bunches per vine, now it’s more like seven or eight.’

See all Domaine Dujac tasting notes and scores

Domaine Dujac began picking the first parcels on 3rd September. As with many estates, they started with the Pinot Noir and then moved on to Chardonnay.

They began to pick the whites in Puligny-Montrachet on the 10th and 11th of September and followed through on the reds after finishing on 19th September.

Dujac is not certified organic, but they farm their vineyards using organic methods combined with some elements of biodynamics, and the work in the winery flows as much as possible following the biodynamic calendar.

The winemaking at Dujac is very sensitive and essentially non-interventionalist. Although they are famous for whole cluster fermentation, the exact percentages are determined by the ripeness of the stems and the presence of botrytis (none in 2019).

Alec says that they usually destem 10-15% of the fruit, commenting ‘it’s more about infusion than extraction,’ with a combination of punching down, pumping over, and gently foot-treading some of the smaller vats.

Since they incorporate a relatively significant portion of the press wine, it is essential to understand how much tannin will come from pressing. Fermentation is done with wild yeasts, and the wines are typically bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Seldom does one find winemaking as expressive as that being done by the young generation at Dujac.

Charles Curtis MW rates the Domaine Dujac 2019 releases

See also

Chablis 2019: Full vintage report and top-scoring wines

Best value 2019 red Burgundy en primeur to buy

Best value 2019 white Burgundy en primeur to buy