Domaine Dujac   Clos St Denis

2007 Clos St Denis

By Domaine Dujac

The 2007 Clos St Denis from Domaine Dujac, Burgundy, France

Embarking upon a retrospective exploration of the climatically capricious 2007 vintage in Burgundy uncovers several vintages worthy of meticulous scrutiny. Amidst this vintage's pantheon, the 2007 Clos St Denis from Domaine Dujac shines with an allure that astutely captures the heart of discerning collectors and investors alike.

 

Vintage Virtuosity: The 2007 Clos St Denis

The year 2007 was marked by a cool spring followed by a summer which flirted with heat spikes, then retreated into patience-testing rainfall and overcast skies. Yet, it is precisely this climatic ballet that has allowed Domaine Dujac to exhibit their winemaking prowess, nurturing the finicky Pinot Noir to a state of delicate poise.

In this context, the 2007 Clos St Denis eloquently narrates the story of its birth-year. The wine parades a sophisticated profile, featuring a transparent garnet hue which deftly forecasts the grace of its sensory bouquet. A pronounced aroma of red cherries, incipient truffle and woodland spice greets the olfactory senses, leading into a palate where acidity pirouettes through layers of mature fruit and subtleties of earthy undertones.

Considered one of the eminent expressions from Domaine Dujac, this Clos St Denis balances precariously on the tightrope strung between resilience and finesse—an equilibrium choreographed by winemaker Jeremy Seysses' masterful hand.

 

A Connoisseur's Compendium: Prospective Potentials

As with fine works of art or the most strategic stock market ventures, astute oenophiles may regard investment in this specific vintage as shrewd. Patinaed with over a decade of bottle maturity, the 2007 Clos St Denis has evolved but promises further potential for nuanced complexity over coming years. Its current state is a testament to its storied terroir and the adept adaptation to a challenging season’s variance—a delight to indulge now but also one to watch with anticipation in your cellar portfolio.

The 2007 Clos St Denis from Domaine Dujac stands ever so brilliantly as an ode to the equilibrium found in challenge and craft. As it graces the palates of those fortunate enough to uncork its history, it remains an emblematic leader for fine Burgundian wines—an indelible memory etched into the annals of enological excellence.

Current market price

£9,140.00

12x75cl

Highest score

91

POP score

830.91

Scores and tasting notes

91

Black tea on the nose; a stony background on the palate; and palate inflections of ginger and rhubarb all offer counterpoint to an almost raspberry syrup-like sweetness of fruit as well as a vanillin overlay in the Dujac 2007 Clos St.-Denis. While this might sound like the recipe for yet another bifurcated wine of its vintage, somehow the whole Gestalt works. The combination of relative delicacy with intensity of flavor; tenderness of texture with a focused if elusive sense of minerality; and satisfying primary juiciness all suggest a wine as worth revisiting 4-5 years from now as it is a delight today. “It’s a quintessential Dujac wine,” says Seysses, more or less summarizing my impressions. It should be worth following for close to a decade. 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

David Schildknecht - The Wine Advocate, 28 June 2010

Vintage performance