Domaine Dujac is young by Burgundy’s standards and has been counted among the region’s great estates for nearly as long as it has existed. Jacques Seysses, the son of a biscuit manufacturer, apprenticed under Gérard Potel at Domaine de la Pousse d’Or before buying the rundown 4.5-hectare Domaine Marcel Graillet in Morey-Saint-Denis at the end of 1967 and renaming it for himself: Dujac, as in du Jacques. The first bottling, the 1969, reached restaurant tables across France through his father’s connections, and his insistence on fermenting whole clusters became the house signature at a time when almost no one else beyond the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was leaving the stems in. His son Jeremy joined in 1998, followed by Jeremy’s wife Diana Snowden Seysses, a UC Davis-trained oenologist from a Napa winemaking family, in 2001, and his brother Alec in 2003. A purchase shared with the de Montille family in 2005 brought Chambertin, Romanée-Saint-Vivant, and two Vosne-Romanée premiers crus into the fold, and the domaine now farms 15.5 hectares, seven grands crus among them, organically and with biodynamic practices since the early 2000s.
Bonnes-Mares straddles the line between Chambolle-Musigny and Morey-Saint-Denis, and Dujac’s 0.59 hectares sit in two sections at the Morey end, with vines on both of the soils that give the cru its split personality: the iron-rich terres rouges and the paler, limestone terres blanches. In 2021 an April frost halved the domaine’s crop and a cold, wet spring followed; a long fine spell from late summer brought the grapes through, and Dujac picked this parcel on 25 September, ahead of the rest of its grands crus. Tim Atkin MW rated it 96, Charles Curtis MW gave it 95 in Decanter, and William Kelley scored it 94 for The Wine Advocate. This is a magnum, the format that matures slowest.
Black cherry and black plum, rose petal, licorice and a charcoal edge, with vine smoke behind. Full-bodied and layered, with powdery tannins and the lively acidity of the year; Jasper Morris observed that the muscular, Morey side of Bonnes-Mares shows through even in this not-so-muscular vintage. Drink 2029 through 2052.
