I well remember our first tasting at Domaine Dujac. The unassuming and gentlemanly Jacques Seysses met us himself. Had my father previous experience of his wines, he asked? "Yes, some, and all positive", was the reply. And me? Yes, I had had the 1983 Clos de la Roche at a university tasting of burgundies where it was to an almost embarrassing extent the finest wine shown, I explained. Our host winced, I thought initially at the prospect of his wine being served to possibly undiscerning undergraduates – but it turned out not at all to be the case – he was very glad everyone had enjoyed it, but was uncomfortable that his Domaine, and the quality of the region more widely, was still then being assessed on the basis of his 1983s, which to his perfectionist mind were not the greatest of successes. He then took us through some 1991s from cask and, from bottle, the Clos de la Roche and Clos St. Denis 1990s and 1989s, and a couple of older wines for context.

After tasting, I better understood what he had meant. Even Charmes-Chambertin from the less than stellar 1987 vintage tasted markedly better than my hitherto-very-fond memories of the 1983 Clos de la Roche. And the 1989, 1990 and 1991 Clos de la Roche and Clos St. Denis were plainly almost incomparably ahead even of that rather special 1987. They were also clearly at least equal to, if not superior to, the best Burgundy we had then recently tasted, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 1981 La Tâche, and left my father muttering about parallels with Cosson’s 1947 Clos des Lambrays. My father quickly established a pattern of buying both the Clos de la Roche and the Clos St. Denis from Dujac, with every vintage from 1989 up until 2005.

Because my father was buying each year, a cycle became established whereby the most recent vintage would be sampled from cask, and an order confirmed for the next visit, whilst picking up the bottled wines from the previous vintage, which had in turn been sampled and confirmed at the preceding visit. When tasting, our progression around the cellar would be marked with a piece or two of gravel left on the rim of each barrel from which the pipette had drawn a tasting sample, to remind our hosts which barrels to top up as soon as we guests had departed: this was not a Domaine which left anything to chance. Everything was thought through and executed to the highest standards at a time when, away from the more palatial chateaux of Bordeaux, that was still relatively rare.

I can recall my father being offered 1992 Bâtard-Montrachet by one Meursault grower who, having served up one rather fleshy chardonnay after another in his vaulted but cobwebby cellar, took us to a rather dirty old caravan in his courtyard to do business on scraps of paper in handwritten scribbles under the watchful gaze of a similarly fleshy Miss Auvergne, hanging by a nail in an old 1988 calendar. The contrast to that sort of grubbiness at Domaine Dujac’s Morey St. Denis premises was stark – restrained, subtle elegance everywhere, except for the humorous if pointed message from a wooden dragon, at least three metres long, and transfixed to a sideboard by the remains of a giant lance – a reminder of the difficulties any vigneron must overcome, and which the Domaine Dujac vigneron certainly did, consistently, year in, year out.

Because my father’s purchase was almost always of only the same pair of Grand Cru wines, our Dujac tastings did not bother with the more minor wines, fine though those were. Instead, we would typically start with Gevrey-Chambertin Premier Cru Aux Combottes, then Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru and then Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Gruenchers – as is common in Burgundy, following a progression of quality rather than one of cru hierarchy, the Gruenchers being invariably the most complete, poised and intense of those three. Any one of those three would have been a magnificent climax to a tasting in almost any other cellar. But there was then a massive further step up in quality and intensity to the four main Grand Crus then comprising Domaine Dujac: Clos de la Roche, Clos St. Denis, Échezeaux and Bonnes Mares.

The Échezeaux and the Bonnes Mares were in jeunes vignes, it was explained, and we were not to expect too much of them. It was telling that, when tasting of them was given, it tended to be in the more full-bodied years only, and it was given before the Clos St. Denis and Clos de la Roche. As usual, our host was right and, though the Échezeaux and Bonnes Mares improved markedly as their respective vines aged, in the period in question neither of them seemed fully to rival either the Clos de la Roche or Clos St. Denis in his cellar, for all that each effortlessly outdistanced the admittedly fine wines preceding them.

As to Clos de la Roche and Clos St. Denis, the comparisons were as invidious as the debates were extensive – which to choose: the structure and power of the former or the sheer hedonism of the latter? Different vintages favoured one or the other, rather like Latour and Pétrus. Our host seldom expressed a clear preference, though it was notable that sometimes we were offered the Clos St. Denis first, sometimes the Clos de la Roche, depending on the vintage. It was not easy to pick a favourite out of the two, whether chez Dujac or later comparing the same vintage of each side by side when they had matured somewhat. There were some more forward vintages – in particular 1992 and 1997 – even the lighter vintages were very fine indeed, so it was no hardship – indeed a very great pleasure – to enjoy those wines whilst waiting for another year’s vin de garde to mature. As a result, the bottles that remain are all ones from vintages which were deliberately kept because tasting had established that they would benefit from cellarage. Each is a tribute not merely to its very special terroir, but also to the artistry of the vineyard and cellar teams which Jacques Seysses and his family assembled and led with quiet passion and rare skill.

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