2007 Bonnes Mares

The Dujac 2007 Bonnes Mares displays a wild berry concentration and pungent, resinous and horehound-like herbal notes I associate with this site. Dark suggestions of game probably offer a glimpse of the evolution to come, though this is corseted with fine-grained tannin and an almost stony undertone takes on unexpected prominence in its forceful, gripping finish. Here’s one 2007 almost sure to 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

Palish red. Medicinal aromas of crushed blueberry and spices, with an intriguing element of dried flowers. Dense, serious and concentrated but more austere than the Clos de la Roche. Restrained for a young 2007 but finishes with lovely tangy sweetness and building tannins. This has very good energy and thrust for the vintage and merits eight to ten years of patience.